One Good Turn Deserves Another
by Coeur Al'Aran
Summary: Jaune wasn't exactly Blake's type, but giving him a hand was the least she could do after he helped her out... it didn't have to mean anything - no matter what Yang implied! Also would Ruby cut it out with the knowing looks, I'm just returning a favour! Blake x Jaune realistic romance, focused on their times at Beacon Academy.
1. Chapter 1

**Heya and welcome to my first fic, and also my first Rwby fic... well... um.. obviously. So I don't want to talk much in this Author's note. This will be a Jaune x Blake pairing but I'm aiming to make it a realistic pairing. What I mean by that is I read a lot of fics on here which have pairings and "romance" that seems incredibly convenient and forced. I.e. "I meet you, I'm in love! You love me too? Awesome!" Whenever I read them I always cringe and have to stop... and I always perhaps unfairly wonder to myself - have they ever dated a girl before? Case in point, Snow Angel. No woman likes nicknames like that, ever. Rooster Teeth know that, they've used it as a comedy piece and nickname that stuck to tease Weiss with, but some ff writers genuinely seem to think it is romantic. That's fine if you're like 10-12, but I'm kind of a 26 year old Company Director who _has_ been around a bit and am active on the dating scene... so... yeah. More reality. **

**So expect hormones, complications, frustration and self-denial. Not to mention drama, jealousy and candid looks. That said I'll also be looking to not change Jaune or Blake's characters either, so don't expect Jaune to suddenly become a suave ladykiller, or Blake to take the lead.**

**I also realised while writing this, that Blake doesn't have all that great a relationship with Jnpr. She is more of a "friend of a friend" and while she acts polite with them, she never really seems to have the same level of intimacy that Ruby does with them, or the teasing friendship Yang does. Weiss has her unwanted flirtations with jaune, and past friendship with Pyrrha.**

**Anyway! Here we goooo!**

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><p><strong>Chapter 1<strong>

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><p>Blake grunted to herself as a Beowolf flew past her, claws slashing furiously at where she had been just a few seconds before. One of the faster varieties of Grim in the forest - they still seemed to move so slowly in comparison to her feline grace.<p>

Then again speed wasn't their main weapon, she considered to herself as she flipped over another, her faithful weapon scoring a deep line across the back of its neck as she arced over it. Letting her ribbon bound arm swing free she propelled the second blade of gambol shroud in a violent arc, spinning it around her body and causing the blade to lodge deep into the bottom of the Beowolf's jaw. The beast fell with a sickening crunch, dislodging her blade as she swung it back to her hand.

A brief twitch of her concealed ears showed that there was no enemy in her immediate vicinity, taking the brief moments rest to recover her bearings her yellow eyes surveyed the scene about them.

Grim corpses littered the floor of the forest like black leaves fallen from the trees. Weiss and Ruby were stood together at one side, the latter providing long range support while the Schnee heiress provided a dead zone, incapacitating and dispatching any Grimm that tried to approach them.

She supposed the change in their tactics might have something to do with their exhaustion. Ruby's high speed fighting style probably took a grievous toll on her physical stamina. The girl so used to ending fights quickly that she struggled against herds of weaker foes. Whether Weiss was defending their leader, or was herself running out of steam – or dust – was unknown.

Blake's own partner of course, seemed as filled with energy as ever. Diving under the swinging arms of a Beowolf to deliver a devastating blow to its chin. Blake rolled her eyes internally at the huge grin on her face.

She was beginning to tire herself, and considering she was actively minimising her movements to conserve energy that was saying something. This whole training trip had proven to be a poor idea.

"Boom! Got it!" A voice that sounded far too ecstatic called out, as the dust from another explosion whistled past her. There was another one with entirely too much energy, especially considering how heavy that hammer was. She didn't care what anyone said. Limitless energy _had_ to be a facet of her semblance…

Team JNPR had agreed wholeheartedly with Ruby's idea to get some live fire training in the Emerald Forest. It hadn't hurt that Beacon considered such training missions as permissible reasons to skip class – and could even consider them extra-credit.

Further reasoning had been sound, they had been training so much lately against each other, and other Hunters in Goodwitch's lessons, that they were forgetting who the true enemy really was. Yang had been keen for any kind of adventure, and once Weiss had been won over Blake had just tagged along to keep them out of trouble.

As for the other team? Nora had been keen, naturally. And Ren had agreed to come along to watch over her, whatever their relationship was, or wasn't, Blake had known they would both come. Pyrrha had shown her usual protective attitude over the two, and Jaune had either come along because he wanted to be stronger… or just felt peer pressured. Blake could never tell with the blonde.

Speaking of the boy, he seemed to be doing okay. His style was much more immovable than her own, blocking and defending before lashing out at over-extended limbs whenever he had the chance. Both of them relied almost entirely on counter-attacking, though she emphasised never being struck in the first place.

To each their own, she guessed.

A crunching of leaves behind her caused a sigh to escape her lips as she pirouetted on the spot, and weaved between the clawing arms of another Beowolf, this time keeping Gambol shroud sheathed as she ploughed the blade into the beast's sternum.

"Ready to go home yet?" Yang crowed over the violence, her back banging into Blake's as she assumed a back to back stance with the faunus. Once more Blake felt her eyes rolling, there was no need for a back to back fighting stance, and she wasn't immobile enough to even cover the blonde… she'd literally just done it for style – as usual.

"I certainly wouldn't mind a rest." The taller redhead opined from nearby. "I didn't expect this level of Grim when we agreed to this." In the distance they could hear Ruby yell out an apology which they collectively ignored.

"A shower would be appreciated right now." Blake offered as she broke away from Yang and re-joined the fray. The sweat and blood was what was getting to her the most, the mingling scent disturbing her sensitive sense of smell. There were relatively few Grim left now, and despite their usually terrible luck they hadn't managed to attract a Deathstalker with the noise or some such nonsense.

Nor a squadron of white fang or giant robots, or the usual ridiculous scenarios she found herself dragged into. Why was it always crazy dangerous stuff, and not some crazy good-looking ninjas or something, she thought to herself with a sarcastic grin.

"Blake! Look out!" The sudden male scream caught her attention, her eyes instantly alighting on Jaune who was sprinting towards her. Trusting his reasoning despite his usual goofiness she span herself to one side, hoping to avoid whatever Grimm had managed to sneak up on her. A huge weight clipped her as she tried to dodge, slamming her to the ground even as a great weight landed on her legs causing her to hiss in pain. The reflexive strike she delivered with her weapon bit down into thick flesh but with little reaction.

Little wonder she hadn't heard or felt something sneaking up on her. The body that pinned her legs to the floor was an already dispatched Beowulf that had been knocked aside by someone. Grunting in irritation she began squirming to free her legs from the smelly creature.

"Blake, are you okay?" The blonde knight asked her as he jogged to her side. She ignored his somewhat rhetorical question as she strained to free her legs. The body was heavier than she'd expected and brute strength had never been her strongest point.

"I'm fine, help get this off me."

"E-eh, sure." The boy seemed surprised at her instructions but obligingly hurried to help, settling his hands under the creature's shoulders as he prepared to life it enough that she could wriggle free. "This thing is heavier than it looks!"

Blake let her head fall back onto the soft earth in silent frustration as he struggled with the corpse. Their studies aside, how light had he expected an eight-foot creature made of solid muscle and bone would actually be.

"Damn it this isn't budging! Hey Ren, can you give me a hand over here?" Blake let her head dip to one side as she laconically looked in the direction of the green-clad gunman her _saviour_ had shouted out to. The dark haired boy seemed to let out a short sigh that perfectly reflected her own current mood as he stopped firing to look at them, right before his magenta irises widened in alarm.

"Jaune! Behind you!"

Blake flinched at the sudden noise and almost let out a yelp of alarm when Jaune's boot slammed down next to her face as he took a more rigid stance. A solid tonne of muscle and bone was on them at the next moment as a burly clawed arm slammed into the Knight's shield, deflecting off with a shower of sparks even as the force drove the boy back a step.

Blake resumed her urgent struggling as Jaune was forced back. The Beowolf had perhaps not noticed her yet but it was only a matter of time before it did, or just stepped on her and killed her.

"Blake!" The blonde shouted in alarm as he surged forwards again to take a position above her prone body. If the situation hadn't been so dire she would have felt more than a little foolish having her head close enough to bite his ankles, while staring up his legs at his crotch. Instead she struggled with her hips trying to get her legs out from under the dead grim. A sharp pain shot up her left thigh at the effort, and for a moment she feared it had been punctured by one of the spikes the creatures had across their carapace.

Another roar and crash of metal above her drew her attention back to the fight raging above her form. Jaune once more staggered back from the blow before righting himself and planting his foot firmly down in front of her head. She knew it wouldn't last though.

The force of the blows was too strong for him to block without some of the momentum bleeding through… normally he would seek to deflect the blow while moving back with the force. Staying completely stationary was doing nothing but damaging his arm and draining his aura. With his own body reeling back from each strike he wouldn't be able to do anything with his sword… the blade would literally hit the grim with all the force of a butter knife.

A more heroic person might have shouted at him to save himself, to forget about her… that she would be fine. She'd read about those kinds of people all the time in her books – and dreamed about having that kind of bravery and fortitude. Until now, she had thought she might have.

_I don't want to die… not stepped on like an ant by a monster that doesn't even have any good reason to kill me!_

"Jaune, Blake, hang on!"

And maybe she wouldn't have to die, neither of them would. Ren would certainly not have ignored them while they were trapped in such a precarious situation. Not when his best male friend and leader was in trouble…. Even if she wasn't as close with them as she was with her own teammates. She didn't think he would ignore her in trouble either.

"Argh!" The boy above her shouted out as a sickening crack echoed from his arm. Blake's yellow eyes widened in sudden fear as she saw his shield arm slump uselessly at his side. The sudden realisation of what this meant shone in his eyes as much as her own, as the two of them met. His own blue eyes looked sad and defeated – as though it was just one more reason to be ashamed. She didn't need to see her own eyes to know that they were wide in understanding terror.

With the beast lunging in once more, there would be no way for him to defend himself or her from the attack. Instead he would be forced to abandon his position above her and dodge the blow, leaving her to perish beneath the clawed feet of the maddened grim.

Their eyes stayed locked to each other as she tried to form the words she wanted. Instead all she could do was mouth the word she wanted to shout out. _Move. _His own blue eyes hardened, a sudden flash of anger or frustration even as he let out a short sigh.

Blood splashed across her vision a second later as the two forms above her clashed. Through the red haze she could see the dark bipedal grim falling back away with a sword through its face, on the other side a smaller blurry figure also collapsed to the floor.

"… Jaune…?" She whispered in the sudden silence as she struggled to look at the body lying beside her. His blonde locks had fallen across his face so she couldn't see if he was awake, or even alive. "Jaune!" She tried again, louder this time as she reached out with one hand to touch him. The distance was too much as her questing fingers fell short a scant few inches from his face. Frustrated she strained herself to touch his skin, there had to be a pulse. _Had_ to be! If only she could reach him and make sure!

But the blood! There was so much blood. Pooling beneath him even as her body screamed in pain from her attempts to stretch it. Another blurry figure rushed to the downed boy's side, a male voice she recognised piercing her confusion.

"Jaune! Oh Gods, Jaune. Damn it."

Ren. That was good. He would fix this, right? The adrenaline rushing through her system seemed to be escaping her, along with what remained of her consciousness. Her fingers still reached out to touch that hidden face as she slipped away.

"Ja…une…"

Maybe when she woke, this nightmare wouldn't exist anymore.

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><p><strong>So there we go, a short starting chapter but I am a super busy person and I wanted to give Blake and Jaune a realistic reason to interact. Also I think I raised a randomly important point... they are training to hunt Grim... yet they're constantly fighting off thieves, terrorists and militants... did Rooster Teeth somehow think an entire ecosystem of monsters wasn't enough of a threat to fill a series on!?<strong>

**And why do we do so much training fighting each other? I have yet to see a Grim using a spear/sword/gun ... :/**


	2. Chapter 2

**Well I would like to thank you all for your support for this fic, I was surprised to get so much positive feedback – not only because it's my first fic, but also because I'm using a less preferred pairing. I do know a few Arkos fangirls who have been giving me evil looks lately. **

**For anyone who is wondering, timeline wise this is set sometime after Blake's reveal as a Faunus, but before season two starts, so there will be story aspects later. The ironic part is that a closer relationship between Blake and Jaune wouldn't really impact the story much I feel, since Blake is one of those people who likes to sit on the edges of conversations chipping in occasionally, and Jaune never really butts in either.**

**Update Schedule: I update whenever I can, but cannot promise future ones will be as quick as this has been. Chapter length will also vary wildly I imagine.**

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><p><strong>Chapter 2<strong>

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><p>Waking up from an injury induced sleep was a slow affair, and one she wasn't all that used to. While trips and stays at the infirmary weren't uncommon in a combat school, the safety measures implemented by Miss Goodwitch tended to mean you were hurt but conscious when you arrived. It was the rhythmic beeping of a heart monitor which drew her back into the land of the living however, followed by the invasive light that had her scrunching her face in displeasure.<p>

It wasn't until her memories started to come back that she fully woke up with a gasp. Training, the emerald forest, her teammates – Jaune!

She reared up in the hospital bed, a thin white cloth falling from her shoulders as she looked about in sudden fear. White walls, beds, she had seen it all before but it was the blonde figure in a bed two down from her own that drew her attention. He looked tired and sick. Paler skin than usual and some bags under his eyes that made it look like his skin was drooping. But the rhythmic beeping of the heart monitor and the visible swelling of his chest calmed her own raging heart.

Alive. Clearly injured and unwell, but alive. A breath of relief escaped her as she sank back into the soft pillows behind her head. That was good. Fortunate even. Assuming nothing else had gone wrong, and she suspected there would have been someone to tell her if there had…then everyone had gotten out okay. Her biggest fear, that she might fail people as she had failed Adam hadn't come to pass this time.

Reaching one hand up she ran her fingers across her ears, feeling the bow still in place. She was in a hospital gown, so clearly one of her teammates had either replaced the bow to protect her secret or asked the staff to do so. She knew that Ozpin and Goodwitch had known her nature beforehand, it was mostly the other students she looked to hide it from anyway. Faunus and Human alike.

That aside she now had the unenviable position of being a patient in the Academy infirmary, attempting to leave which without permission, usually resulted in serious repercussions. Idly she let her hands roam about beneath her covers and trace over her legs. There were no bandages on her thighs, and while her left leg dully ached there didn't seem to be any serious injuries. Most likely she had come out of the scuffle unharmed, which was more than could be said of her saviour.

Once again her head fell to the side as her yellow eyes inspected him. She suspected if it were Ruby in her position that the young girl would have had a panic attack at seeing her friend hooked up to machines like that. Blake was an analyst though… sarcastic to a fault and often cynical, but her mind had taken a few moments to whirl before allowing emotion to dictate her actions. If he was in any true danger then he wouldn't be in the general ward, he would have been transferred to an intensive ward in a hospital. More likely he had been hooked up to the machine as a precaution, or because for a while it had been touch and go.

Despite that though, there was no denying that he was in that state because of her. Or rather, not because of her, but because he had chosen to protect her. She had been completely unable to free herself from under the crushing weight of the Beowolf, and that had been no one's fault. But it _had_ been kind of him to protect her as he had. Brave too.

_I need to do something to pay him back for that…_ Blake Belladonna was not a person who stayed in someone's debt, and not only because she didn't want to be beholden to anyone. People who helped her _deserved_ to be repaid for that kindness where she could…

But what would Jaune even want?

_A girlfriend?_ A treacherous part of her mind offered causing her lips to twist in displeasure. It was no secret that Jaune didn't have much luck with the ladies, and honestly Blake could see why… He had a good figure and was handsome in a charming kind of way… but his personality was just too… limp.

Or rather it was perhaps his confidence that was the problem. Because it was difficult to have any idea what his personality was like when he never really expressed it aloud. Either way romance was _not_ something she was interested in at the moment. She could get more than enough of that with her novels thank you very much.

Not to mention she didn't want to cause a rift between herself and Weiss by trying to help Jaune win the heiress over… that was a can of worms she had no interest getting involved with.

In the end there was relatively little she could offer the blonde that he was not receiving elsewhere. His training was improving in leaps and bounds thanks to the attention he was receiving from his not-so-secret admirer. He had companionship aplenty with Nora, Ren and Ruby… even Yang seemed to enjoy having him around if just to tease him.

"Miss Belladonna?" A feminine voice asked as a white coated woman walked into the room. Never having been a patient of the infirmary herself she did not recognise the woman, nor did the woman offer a name in return. "It's good to see you awake, how are you feeling?"

"Stiff, but not in pain." She replied evenly, giving the woman the specifics she would want as a medical professional. The woman nodded to herself as she flipped through a few quick sheets of paper at the end of her bed.

"That's to be expected. For your records you suffered nothing worse than a pulled muscle and some bruising on your legs. From the account given by your team mates you were pinned under a grim corpse. Is this correct?"

"A Beowolf, yes. I wasn't able to break free on my own." Idly she wondered who had been the one to lift the beast off her, she would not have been surprised if it was Yang who had managed to move it. Alone or with help.

"The muscle appears to have been pulled by your efforts to free yourself. There's little I can offer in terms of advice since it was clearly the better option to attempt an escape than be incapacitated in enemy territory. I don't want to prescribe painkillers for such an injury, but if the pain worsens come to me immediately."

"That's fine. Is Jau- he okay?" She asked while pointing towards Jaune. The woman started for a moment before turning back to her, a stiff expression on her face.

"I am unable to discuss Mr Arc's treatment and injuries with people not on his team. If that is all, you can leave as soon as you are able."

_Bitch._ Blake thought to herself as she nodded politely to the woman. Perhaps it was protocol, but she suspected it was more due to her nature as a _non-human_ that had led to that. Either way she would take advantage of the chance to leave the infirmary and seek out her team. There was no way in Hell Ruby would _not_ know what Jaune's injuries were, and how well he was doing. And no infirmary policy would have stopped her finding that out.

Thankfully someone had seen fit to bring her a clean set of clothes, though she prayed it was not Yang that had felt the need to go rummaging through her underwear drawers. If she had found the other book she had hidden there…. Gods….

Pulling her heeled boots on she winced as she clambered to her feet, acutely aware of the dull ache that shot down her left leg as she placed weight on it. The pain was manageable and possible prejudice aside it probably wasn't wise to risk painkiller dependence for so small an injury.

Before she left she let her eyes drift over Jaune once more, he hadn't shown any sign of waking and might not do for some time yet. Despite that she awkwardly shuffled in place as she thought of something to say to the boy who obviously couldn't even hear her. _How foolish am I being?_

"Er. Jaune. Thanks… for helping me. I'll pay you back, okay?"

The beeping of the monitor was her only response as she waited for a few long seconds before hurrying out of the room. She would thank him when he awoke, and make sure he knew how thankful she was that he had protected her. And then she would extend a hand of friendship to the boy, an official one this time.

For now though it was best for her to seek out her own team. Probably more for their comfort than her own she thought to herself with a small smile. Such a dramatic little team, even if she just pulled a muscle she could imagine Ruby's distress and Yang's silent concern. Weiss could seem colder about it, but ever since the event where her past had been revealed and forgiven, Blake had started to notice the subtle stares Weiss would give if she was ever concerned about one of them. Like someone unwilling to admit it, but quietly checking to make sure you were okay.

A quick scan of her scroll unlocked the door to their room, allowing her to slip inside with a small sigh.

"Blakey!? You're okay!" A voice crowed from her left, causing her to jump a little as 135 pounds of huntress barrelled into her, dragging her to the floor. Despite herself she couldn't help the tiny smile that came to her lips as she was crushed into the bosom of the taller blonde.

"Hello to you as well Yang."

"Don't you _Hello_ me Blakey! What were you thinking out there!?"

_What was I thinking? Perhaps that I was trapped under the weight of a Beowolf, and that I was afraid I was about to die…_ Yang didn't want to hear about that though, and Blake didn't want to ruin either of their good moods.

"Sorry." She offered simply as an alternative as she shrugged in Yang's arms.

"The nurse said you got away with pretty much no harm, are you okay to continue studies then?"

"I would assume so. That said… she wouldn't tell me anything about Jaune. I know you will have found out what happened to him." The blonde's lilac eyes seemed to widen at Blake's tone before narrowing into tiny slits.

"Oh really… hmm... you want to know about Jauney-boy do you? Did our resident knight woo the fair maiden with his heroic acts?"

The tone was typical Yang really, teasing with a hint of curiosity and suspicion involved. Blake dreaded what might happen if Ruby ever did find someone to pine after if this was how Yang was going to act.

"Jaune _really_ isn't my type." Blake admitted with a roll of her eyes. "But he did sort of… save my life… so yeah." She finished a little lamely as she looked to one side, a blush slowly appearing on her cheeks. Somehow it felt ironic to be more embarrassed at having to be saved than the teasing that she was into the man, but that was just how she worked.

"Heh, guess so. Yeah I've got the details alright but it's a little _grim_ if you know what I mean."

"Yang…" Blake warned, not particularly appreciating the delay or the poor pun.

"Geez fine. Jauney was pretty messed up. His aura was depleted to critical levels and he got a sizeable chunk of his chest torn out." Blake winced at the words, her face pulling down in increasing fear at the words. "Luckily it was mostly skin with some bruising on his ribcage. The doctors said he'll be fine in a couple of days, and he'll have a kick-ass scar for it too!"

Somehow she doubted those had been the words of the medical team to look after the blonde hunter in training, but it would do for now.

"How did the others take it?"

"Quite well actually." Yang offered flippantly, earning a raised eyebrow from Blake. The blonde's eyes suddenly narrowed as a serious look overcame her face. "Considering that we were pretty much all convinced he was gonna die."

Blake winced noticeably this time at those words. God they must have been in a real state… she had been so sure he would die as well when she had blacked out. To find the two of them like that, with Blake silent and unconscious and Jaune bleeding all over the floor. She couldn't imagine it would have been easy for any of them.

"I'm sorry." Blake offered, more sincerely this time. Having people be concerned for her was still a new feeling, as were the responsibilities that came with such close attachments.

"Whoah! I'm not blaming you." Yang was quick to interrupt, grabbing Blake by the shoulders and giving her a stiff shake. "You were down and out, there wasn't much you could have done."

"Other than being more aware so I didn't get in that situation in the first place." She mumbled aloud with a sigh. She wasn't so self-absorbed or selfish to suggest that this was all her fault. But it was undeniable that she could have avoided that Grim if she had been more aware of her situation, or if she had conserved her stamina better. Or just not made such a silly mistake as stopping to take a breather in a battle.

"Well that's why we're here isn't it. I doubt you'll ever make that mistake again, and besides no one got killed for this. Jaune will come out just fine, and with his first battle wound too. Men _love_ those."

"Isn't it supposed to be that women love those?" She offered with a small grin, which Yang quickly returned.

"Blakey, that's _why_ men love them!" The blonde roared in laughter while Blake simply shook her head in silent amusement. "Seriously though he's gonna be fine, so you can stop worrying so much about it."

Blake felt her eyes narrow in surprise at those words, was she so obvious in her concern? She hadn't thought herself so easy to read.

"Who says I'm worried about him?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Blakey! I'm your partner, I can see these things."

"Is that so?" Blake asked with thick sarcasm while she rolled her eyes visibly. She was beginning to feel uncomfortable enough that she was still trapped in Yang's arms on the floor of their dorm.

"Blake, I can read you easier than you can read your little smut books."

"They're not smut!" Blake hissed with a small glare, repeating words she had used hundreds of times before. They were _not_ smut. All literature was art… it's just that some covered more mature topics. And really as if sex wasn't an important part of life, it was the very basis of it. Realistic scenes like that just made the characters more believable, and the story more fulfilling.

"Oh I bet you've had chapters just like this right. The brave knight rescues the damsel in distress, taking grievous wounds in the process." Blake's eyes narrowed as she let out a cat-like hiss of displeasure as the blonde continued. "Then while he is recovering she sneaks into the infirmary… carefully she locks the door behind her before she climbs on his bed and rides him like-"

"Okay I think that's enough out of you!" Blake hissed with a red face as she clamped her hands over the mouth of the grinning blonde. "I will definitely _not_ be thanking Jaune in that manner!"

"Mblhffl!" Yang offered past Blake's hands, prompting the Faunus to lower them with a warning expression on her face. "I said, how will you thank him then?"

"I'm still trying to figure that out." She admitted with a sigh. "I wouldn't say no to any suggestions as long as they don't involve me getting out of my clothes." Not that Yang, for all of her flirtatious nature, would ever _honestly_ suggest such a thing. But she needed serious advice here.

"Well you could still take on a little bit of what I said."

"Yaaang…." Blake groaned out but was interrupted.

"Have a little faith will you Blakey. I mean Jaune is going to be stuck in the med bay for a couple of days until his aura is back up. You could help him recover as thanks for helping you out."

That… wasn't a bad idea… which coming from Yang was somewhat scary in its own right. There was a certain amount of poetic justice in the action and it would also make it clear that she was doing it to repay him without getting his hopes up. It was protecting her that put him in the infirmary, so she could take steps to make that stay more bearable.

"Okay, that sounds good… I suppose I could take notes for him in class and help him catch up with the work he misses." That was one aspect Jaune was still not exactly excelling with so he might actually appreciate that help more than anything else right now. Anything that kept Goodwitch off his case would probably earn his lasting approval.

"Er yeah, I was thinking more like actually helping him while he is _in_ the med bay. You could lend him some of your books to read."

"What books?" Blake asked with a suffering sigh. "I was under the impression I owned nothing but hard-core pornography."

"Like the one you tried to hide in your underwear drawer?"

_Oh you bitch!_

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><p>The reunion with the other half of team Rwby had been just as pleasurable to Blake, who found a quiet joy in the concern and camaraderie they showed to her. Of course they had failed to adequately explain why Ruby and Weiss had found her and Yang wrestling angrily on the floor of the room, but everyone instinctively blamed Yang for it anyway.<p>

From what Blake had been able to glean, Ruby and Weiss had been checking up on the remains of team Jnpr, who had understandably been a little shaken at the damage done to their leader. Ruby had been quick to assure herself and Yang that they were fine now that Jaune was clearly out of danger. But apparently Pyrrha was designing a frankly dangerous looking training regime for the poor man. Blake didn't know whether to pity the man who had acquired the champion's attention so keenly, or Pyrrha herself for falling for such a socially-awkward man-child.

It wasn't until Blake was laying in her bed while the others drifted to sleep that she began to think back on the young man she owed a debt to. Falling asleep surrounded by friends was an unusual but comforting feeling for her, and while Adam had always been quick to defend her if she was in danger they were never as close as she was with team Rwby. Considering how close she had come to death it was calming to know she had three other people nearby who would react if there was any danger.

It was that realisation that made her think on Jaune. For when he woke up he wouldn't have anyone nearby to calm him down. Though she knew team Jnpr would all bunk in the infirmary if they could, they would not be allowed to do so. As such he was going to have to sleep alone in a cold bed after a near-death experience…

Maybe Yang's suggestion of giving him something to read to distract himself wasn't such a bad idea…

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><p><strong>So yeah. Blake really doesn't think that much of Jaune still, after all I'm going for realism here and I'm probably actually going to draw a few parallels to how I actually ended up dating some of my ex's. I don't think I've EVER had a relationship that didn't involve a lot of time and friendship first. <strong>

**Also there isn't much Jaune – Blake interaction here, and really if you think about their personalities why would there be? Blake has just started paying more attention to Jaune, but their personalities are so different in terms of maturity that Blake couldn't just sit down with him and chat. This chapter was mostly a team interaction between Blake and Rwby, and why not? Blake and Jaune are the major characters in this fic and their teams are their family, so I intend to have a lot of interaction involved. **

**Also if anyone asks, the image used for this is just one of my characters from my Virtual Novel I'm working on. It isn't OC foreshadowing or Blake in a new outfit or anything. :D**


	3. Chapter 3

**Another chapter, and this one is the first one I'm "meh" or unsure on. I needed to have this for plot purposes, and after this is where some of the pseudo-romance can begin. But I still stress, it will be slowly! But anyway yeah, I'm a little meh on this chapter. I've tried to portray Weiss in a way that reflects her having accepted Blake, and being on the way to the friendly camaraderie they had on the train when Weiss hands Blake a specialised dust cartridge just for her (though personally I swear it was a Guitar Hero console.) So I apologise if Weiss seems slightly OoC, just let me know and I will try to fix it.**

**On a side note, thanks to the people who suggested I capitalise the team names, I will do that from now on, but apologise if one or two slipped through here. I'll say again though, the image is "not" to do with the story, it's my own visual novel character. Sorry to the person who mentioned it – xD**

**P.s. Neo is now my favourite character ever after watching her fight with Yang, holy crap. What sass! +100 points for stylish mocking.**

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><p><strong>Chapter 3<strong>

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><p>It had taken around forty hours for Jaune to wake from his injury induced coma, and the message had arrived on the scrolls of team JNPR during their lunch break.<p>

Nora had whooped happily before jumping to her feet, and although Ren and Pyrrha had risen with more calm grace there had still been an obvious sign of relief and urgency to their motions. Blake had been spared from coming up with an excuse to tag along when Ruby suggested that their team go to wish him well too.

True to her word Blake had been carefully taking down notes through their studies and copying them at night to create a second well-laid out set of papers. Ruby had offered to help, but the young girl's notes were illegible and sporadic enough as it were so Blake had politely explained that she wanted to do this alone as thanks to Jaune.

Weiss and herself were the last ones to enter the infirmary, neither of them being ones to sprint down the corridors unless it was truly necessary. And unlike a late class, Jaune wasn't going anywhere in the short term. Blake wasn't at all surprised when they stepped into the room to see the group of feminine figures crowded around the bed that occupied the knight. Ren stood nearby with a small smile on his face, no doubt not wanting to be caught in whatever madness might occur.

"- fine. They said it was just aura exhaustion and some tissue damage." The blonde finished with a weak looking grin. It looked as though he had been unhooked from most of the machines, though there was still an IV drip in one arm that was keeping him hydrated.

"Jauney!" Nora crowed as she seemed to be vibrating on the spot, it looked to Blake like she was trying to resist the urge to jump on him for fear of hurting him. "When are you gonna be able to come back to class, and our room, and training, and food!"

"Er… well I can eat whenever now. But as for the others I think it's just when they decide I'm fit enough to go. They said it would be a few days yet though."

"Enough of this!" Yang shouted with a wide grin. "Show us that badass scar lady killer!" Blake rolled her eyes at the reaction the words caused. A combination of blushing from Jaune, Ruby and Pyrrha, as well as excited shouting by Nora and recriminations from Weiss. Sometimes Blake wondered if Yang came out with these comments just to enjoy the overly dramatic reactions of their teams.

"Ignoring Yang." Ruby interrupted with a blush still on her face. "It's good to see you alright Jaune, we were all pretty worried."

"Really?" Jaune asked in surprise at the words while shooting a small hopeful glance towards the heiress next to Blake. The faunus noticed the temperature near her drop as Weiss narrowed her eyes in return, promising retribution if he tried anything. Really, Blake thought to herself, when would he get the hint that Weiss just wasn't interested? She didn't miss the slightly disappointed look on Pyrrha's face, nor the frustration on Ruby's.

_What an idiot… seriously naïve innocence is cute in a child but this is taking it a little too far…_ She couldn't even blame Weiss for being so angry at him considering he still made some kind of attempt on her every week. It had to get old pretty quickly.

"Sorry to worry you all I guess." The blonde apologised easily, drawing exasperated looks from a few of his concerned friends and a light thump on his shoulder from Pyrhha.

"Don't be silly Jaune, it's not your fault you were hurt. As your partner I should have been more aware of your situation."

"I'm the one who suggested we go out there to train!" Ruby admitted with a guilty look.

"We all agreed to it!" Weiss quickly interrupted, before the blame party could go any further. Yang nodded empathically from nearby, though she seemed to have a faintly concerned look in her eye as she watched her younger sister. Blake hadn't realised that Ruby might have been blaming herself for this injury, they'd have to take steps to disabuse her of that notion.

"Alright, alright." Jaune laughed tiredly as he leaned back onto his pillows. "I guess I've fallen behind on school work haven't I?"

"Well not exaaaactly." Yang stressed while waggling her eyebrows at the now confused boy. Blake's eyes narrowed threateningly as she promised silent murder at the blonde. Thankfully Pyrrha seemed to notice and stepped in.

"Blake offered to take notes for you in the lessons, so you won't need to catch up."

"Really?!" Jaune exclaimed in surprise, his blue eyes shooting to hers as if to verify the fact, and this time Blake knew his surprise was genuinely warranted. Meanwhile every other person turned to regard her as well, causing her to flush at the sudden attention. It had been an unfortunate necessity to let team JNPR know her intention, lest they had made their own set of notes for him too.

But really did he have to act so surprised at the idea?

And would Yang wipe that grin off her face?

"As a thank you." She quickly offered with a shrug of one shoulder while looking to the side awkwardly. "For helping me out."

"N-no problem!" He stuttered back uncertainly. She hoped it was because he was unused to receiving any form of direct help from her, and not because he was reading into the gesture more than he really ought to.

_Now I'm reading into things too much… and I know exactly who to blame for that._ She thought to herself as her eyes settled on her buxom partner once more. The other girl seemed to be doing some motion with her eyes, jerking them towards Jaune as if urging her to say something.

"_What?"_ She mouthed back in confusion, before giving up when Yang seemed to slump in frustrated defeat.

"Well, either way Jaune that means you won't have to worry about catching up on the academic side of things." Pyrrha rescued as the silence started to grow. "But we'll be doing some more work on the physical side between the two of us."

"Err… I suppose that's a good idea?" The blonde offered, more as a question than a statement even as Ren seemed to chuckle at his distress behind one hand. None of them were foolish enough to try and intervene in Pyrrha's training of the blonde, to do so was to incur the wrath of the champion.

"Hey, how about me and Blake go get you some food anyway." Yang suddenly interrupted while pounding a fist into her open palm. Everyone turned to look at her in confusion at the sudden tangent, but the incapacitated knight's stomach grumbled in agreement.

"I guess I wouldn't say no to some real food." He sheepishly admitted.

"Great, come on Blakey!" Yang crowed while dragging her from the room. Blake allowed herself to be pulled after her partner, wondering what kind of clandestine message she wanted to pass on.

"Why didn't you say anything?" yang asked in exasperation once they were out of ear-shot of the others.

"I recall I did say something…" Blake responded with a small frown. What more had there been that could have been said? She had told him that she had taken notes for him and thanked him for helping her.

"You serious? That was _it?!_" She huffed as she threw her arms in the air before adopting a crossed arm stance while leaning on one foot. "_I took notes for you…As a thank you."_ She mumbled in what was probably the worst impression of herself Blake had ever heard.

"I thought it said enough… what was wrong with it?"

"Wow, what a couple the two of you would make. Mr Socially awkward, and little miss socially inept."

"I'm not socially inept!" Blake hissed with a small spike of anger. Just because she was quiet didn't mean she was incapable of reading moods and dealing with people in a diplomatic manner.

"Not inept then, but you don't exactly open up to people Blake. We've all been besties with JNPR for months now, yet I think I can count the number of conversations you've had with them on one hand. Even Weiss has a better relationship with them!"

"Weiss has been trained from birth to be an ambassador of her family." Blake argued back while crossing her arms defensively. Just because she didn't engage well with JNPR didn't mean she wasn't friends with them. She just liked to listen to everyone talk while she read.

"Calm down kitkat." Yang cooed while patting her head like a housecat. Blake fumed but endured it while glaring into those lilac orbs. Irritating as she might be there was no denying that Yang was her best bet at getting some decent advice here. "But if you want to get Jaune to open up to you, it's gonna be a harder game than chatting with Nora or Pyrrha."

That was probably true, getting Nora to talk was as easy as existing within a fifteen metre radius of the girl. While Pyrrha's time as a celebrity figure had instilled in her a confident politeness which forced her to treat everyone with dignity. Jaune on the other hand reminded her more of a frightened rabbit… and didn't that lead to some disturbing connotations with regards to her own feline nature.

"Normally I wouldn't consider it worth the effort…" Blake let out with a sigh as she leaned on her good leg while crossing her arms.

"Except that he defended you while you were down, and kept you alive. I think we all owe him for keeping our little kitty safe."

"Yeah… so I have to make more of an effort." She would let the cat comments go for now… teasing was a well-known facet of Yang's personality but if the quiet Blake Belladonna was to react to it in the hallways then people might get suspicious.

"Leave it to me! I know the most about guys and how to handle them." Yang's eyes seemed to flash but didn't turn red as she brought herself into a fighting pose, making Blake question what _experience_ Yang actually seemed to have if that was what body language she showed.

"I have a feeling I will regret this, but fine… what do you suggest?"

"Heh. Well hunting a man is just like hunting any animal, especially where one like Jaune is concerned!"

"Okay you _do_ realise I'm just trying to thank him, right?"

"The first thing you need to do is separate the baby elephant from the herd!"

"Yang?"

"Then you need to tire them out so they can't run away. Most animals herd them away from the protection of their pack so the young becomes frightened and loses all energy!"

"Remnant to Yang? I've lost you, haven't I?"

"Then when they are completely out of energy you swoop in and strike!"

"My God, the police are going to be knocking on our door any day now aren't they?" Blake groaned as she laid her head in her hands.

"That's unfair." Yang griped back with a grin. "But I'm kind of serious though, I doubt you'll be confident enough to say what you want to if you have an audience. You'd be best trying to get him away from his team if you want to have a real chat."

Okay that sounded like a good idea… the issue was between herself and Jaune anyway so there was no reason for her to talk in front of the others. Not to mention their reactions… though she doubted Pyrrha would honestly think she was making a move on her man, it would be best to avoid that altogether.

Also Blake knew her own weaknesses… if there were too many people there then she might fall back into her usual habits of letting others control the conversation while she offered wisecracks every now and then. If this was to be an actual conversation then it was probably best if no one else was there to distract her.

"Look it's fairly simple." Yang offered as she threw an arm around Blake's shoulders. This time the blonde's voice was more supportive. "Just do what I saw and you'll be golden."

God she hoped she didn't regret this…

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><p>"We're baaaack!" Yang cried dramatically as the two of them sauntered back into the medical bay, the Black haired faunus balancing a plate of fruit in one hand as she pushed the door that Yang had let close on her face open.<p>

"Pancakes?!"

"They're not for you Nora." Ren sighed as he dragged the bubbly bomber who had shot to her feet back into her seat.

"No pancakes I'm afraid." Yang shrugged apologetically. "Lunch time just ended so all we could really grab was some fruit slices, but we brought plenty."

"I'm sure fruit would be better for your recovery anyway Jaune." Pyrrha offered as she smiled down at her leader, ignoring Ruby's mutterings about cookies being some form of medicinal aid.

"At this point even fruit sounds amazing!" The leader in question laughed back as he accepted the plate from Blake with a small smile as thanks. Blake purposefully made herself smile back with a nod as she handed it over. The action seemed to draw a small bit of surprise from him before he smiled back in a happy manner. Maybe this wouldn't be so hard after all.

"What did I miss?" Blake quietly asked of Weiss as she retreated to the outskirts while the others continued to fuss over Jaune.

"Pyrrha was explaining her new training regime for Jaune. His face went the most delightful shade of grey. Other than that just some suggestions for stronger armour for him if he is going to be tanking hits."

"Not a bad idea." Blake responded as she considered it. Armour on a hunter wasn't exactly a new idea, just look at Winchester, as much as she hated him.

"It's not the idea that's the problem, but the design ideas Nora, Ruby and Pyrrha have been suggesting. I wouldn't be surprised if he came out looking like a Sunday morning cartoon character." Blake felt a small amount of amusement at the idea of Jaune having some kind of tacky transformation shout but otherwise had no outward reaction.

"I need a favour."

"Go on." Weiss replied without looking away from the others laughing at something with the blonde knight.

"I want to thank him for helping me. Any way you can get everyone to leave for a bit?" Weiss seemed to ponder the idea for a moment but at least didn't ask why she would want to thank him or anything similar.

"Alright everyone!" Weiss called out as she stepped away from Blake to catch everyone's attention. "Lunch break is pretty much over and we have Oobleck next, I think we need to let Jaune have a break."

"D'aww but Weiss!" Ruby pouted as she almost seemed to stomp on one foot in frustration.

"Don't you _aww_ me Ruby. You can come back and see Arc again in like three hours, but you won't be able to if you're in detention! And that goes for all of us." The others seemed to agree with this as they tiredly climbed to their feet.

"Don't you have some schoolwork to give to Jaune, Blake?" Yang hinted obviously, almost causing Blake to slap her palm into her own face at the blonde's complete lack of subtlety.

"Blake can stay behind and tell Arc what assignments are coming up, we'll make excuses for her coming a few minutes late. But Oobleck isn't going to accept that from the rest of us!"

"I'll see you later okay Jaune?" Pyrrha urged with a gentle smile as they filed slowly from the room. Blake of course didn't miss Yang's eyebrow dancing session as she slipped out last, and she doubted Jaune had either. Damn that woman.

"Umm…" Jaune attempted.

"Don't ask. It's Yang."

"I guess..."

…

_So this is what an awkward silence feels like?_

"Thanks for taking down notes for me. And for the food."

"No problem." She threw back before remembering what Yang had instructed her to say. "It's for… helping me in the forest. The saving my life thing." _I really should have paraphrased that into non-Yang language… and thank God she isn't here to make a "yanguage" quote. And Oh God now she is infecting my brain…_

"O-oh, well that. That was nothing."

"I think my life is worth more than nothing." She couldn't help but snipe before wincing. Damn not offering sarcastic comments whenever available was hard. To her surprise though Jaune laughed rather than take it seriously.

"Yeah my bad… I wasn't going to leave one of my friends trapped like that though."

"Are we friends?"

In hindsight it probably hadn't been the best thing to say. In fact she'd pretty much realised that in immediate-sight… The look on his face as he seemed to almost recoil as if he'd been struck dragged the next words from her.

"I didn't mean it like that… I just meant, well we didn't ever talk much…" Or maybe at all actually, had she really ever had a conversation with Jaune at all?

"Well no, but you were always there. I just kind of assumed not talking much was… well, your thing… I still counted you as a friend though, like all of team RWBY."

Blake paused in surprise at those words. It wasn't the fact that he considered her a friend which surprised her… Jaune was a well-known goofball, and it wasn't hard to imagine him considering people friends on the drop of a hat. He'd called Velvet his friend too, despite the two never sharing so much as a glance.

What surprised her was how accurate his summation of her was. It was one thing for her own team to have figured her out after spending so much time with her, but for Jaune… and come on, it was _Jaune_ of all people…. To have figured it out?

"You're right, that is my _thing_… I'm kind of surprised you were able to read me that quickly though." The words seemed to be an echo of what she had said to Yang only a couple of days ago, and for a harrowing moment she wondered if she was really that obvious… What delicious irony that would be if she were to walk past someone in the hallway who just instantly called her out as an ex-white fang faunus… She could imagine it now; _"Well it's common knowledge isn't it? I mean everyone has known for ages!"_

"Well actually I have a sister who acts pretty similar at times. I just always assumed you were like her, she likes to read too. Just because she's reading doesn't mean she isn't listening to you though."

"And you think we're similar."

"Well actually I have seven sisters so they actually tend to cover every spectrum of the personality tree." He laughed while scratching the back of his head as he said this, as though he was mildly embarrassed at the fact, and she could see why. Seven sisters? Good Lord that was pretty much a litter.

_But if he has seven sisters how is he so useless with women!?_

That was a mystery for another day. And another person too if Blake had her way. And really if he could get the attention of a desirable like Pyrrha Nikos herself, who was to say he was bad with women at all?

"Right…" Blake mumbled quietly. "Either way I still owe you for helping me out back there."

"You don't owe me anything for helping you Blake." He interrupted while munching on a piece of apple. For a moment she felt the urge to just tell him to put the food down and shut up for a moment, but resisted.

"Either way, you saved my life and I _will_ be paying you back for that."

"You don't need a reason to save a friend's life Blake." Jaune argued while shaking his head, and it seemed he was actually confident enough about this to actually argue on it. "Do you count me as a friend?"

"Well, yes of course." She managed to stop herself from blushing at that. She wasn't the kind of person to engage in fluffy friendship speeches, but she _had_ classed Jaune as a friend. A goofy friend of the group whose antics could amuse and irritate her in equal measure, but it _was_ a friend. Sort of.

She'd also known he was determined and had strong ideals, but to see the stern frown on his lips and the narrowed eyes as he gave her what was almost a commanding glare? It felt… weird. Though not necessarily in a bad way.

"If I was about to die, would you help me?"

"Of course, but-"

"Then there you have it. How can you owe me anything if you'd do the same thing?"

Because that line of thinking made no sense? That was like someone not getting a reward for any good deed because there might be someone else out there who would have done the same good as well?

"Well I've done your homework anyway, so you'll have to deal with it." She simply huffed in the end. Wasn't talking to the socially-awkward Jaune meant to be an easy task she could control from the start? When had he started growing a backbone all of a sudden, sheesh!

"R-really!?" He gasped with hidden hope, destroying the bold and hardened expression he had been building on his face as he instantly regressed back into the idiot she had known before. "Thanks Blake!"

"Only until you're back on your feet, but I figured you could use the help." Now that his personality was back to how he had been before, she was finding it easier to lead the conversation as she wanted. Ironically a stray thought crossed her mind that if he always acted like he had when he was arguing with her then Weiss might have actually found him quite handsome. At the very least he seemed like less of a wet noodle when he pulled that expression.

"I really appreciate it, I'm terrible at taking notes… especially in Oobleck's classes…"

Instead he had reverted back to the nervous schoolboy, and while that was cute enough in its own way it reminded her more of a puppy than an actual person. And Blake was _not_ a dog person.

"Speaking of Oobleck, I should go. I'll see you later Jaune."

"Y-yeah, see you later Blake!"

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><p>Jaune let his head fall back onto the pillow as the black haired girl went back to her classes. Despite being stuck in the infirmary still he was pretty surprised at how good he felt, with a stupid grin coming over his features.<p>

Blake eh? That was a surprise, a good one for a change as well. He hadn't been lying when he had said he'd always considered her as a friend, but it was definitely a distant one. She'd always been the unapproachable beauty at the back of the pack. Pretty and funny in her own way, but never one you actually got to talk to.

Not that he'd pined after her or anything, he was quick to reassure himself, just in case she had any crazy mind-reading powers. You never knew in a school for hunters! All the girls on team RWBY and JNPR were beautiful in their own way, even insane beautiful like Nora, not that he would ever have thought of intruding on Ren's territory. Jaune would _not_ betray the bro's code.

It was kind of frustrating being on a team with two girls, and friends with another all-girl team when literally every single one of them was so far out of his league that it wasn't even funny. But the frustrations had drained away quickly when he'd made such good friends with them. Especially Pyrrha and Ruby!

But Blake!? Wow. He'd kind of expected them to always just be distant friends, look out for each other if they were ever in danger, but maybe he could actually chat with her a little now too? Well, if they could find something in common to actually talk about…

_I wonder if she might be able to offer me any advice with Weiss…_ _No, mind on topic Jaune!_ Blake was an intellectual as far as he could tell. She was one of the best in the academic classes and obviously loved her books. Idly he wondered if they could maybe talk about them, since he had his own collection of fantasy story books back home.

He couldn't mess this chance up though. And that meant no stupidity, and definitely no coming onto Blake!

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><p><strong>There we go, I'm glad I got this one out of the way since I was so unsure on it. I expect the following chapters to be much easier to write. I've tried a bit of an experiment too wherein my writing syle will change based on who the PoV is from. So you might notice when I am writing from Blake's PoV that she sometimes runs off in little internal monologues.<strong>

**Jaune on the other hand I've written as though he has his own little voice desperately trying to make himself do cool things. I.e. "Don't say Snow Angel, don't say Snow Angel! DAMN IT! Abort, ABORT!"**

**Except less obvious perhaps :D – Either way you might have noticed some "wow's" and "!'s" That Blake just wouldn't internally think unless the situation was really shocking to her. **

**Yang's will be interesting to write from if I ever do, since I can imagine her mind going at a thousand miles a minute and latching onto people she can tease wherever possible. **


	4. Chapter 4

**Okay first things first, don't expect any updates over the weekend, or maybe even early next week. One of my journalists is leaving to a new job and I'll be picking up his work and writing some articles for one of our magazine titles. As such I'll be incredibly busy, and I'll also be training some new staff members Monday – Tuesday as well.**

**I've tried to do so many chapters so quickly to tide everyone over while I'm busy. And while I can personally agree with a few reviews who would like longer chapters? I'm keeping this more episodic, so that I can update more often, and write a chapter in a "lucky" break at work if I have some free time… Being in my position as Company Director, I go home and I continue working until like 7 or 8… so any free time is valuable.**

**P.s. I simply cannot figure out who sleeps in what bunk in the actual series... I've kinda assumed Yang is top on one, Blake another, while Ruby and Weiss take the two bottoms. If anyone knows for sure though, let me know in a review plz!**

**Either way, chapter is a go!**

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><p><strong>Chapter 4<strong>

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><p>Blake's ears twitched in silent agitation as she dug through a small book pile that lay across the sheets of her bed, picking one up at a time and staring at the cover before tossing it aside. Not for the first time her amber eyes strayed to the compressed pile of books that held up their bunk beds. Using the books as support for the beds had seemed like a great idea at first, but now she couldn't exactly take one of them out for fear of causing an accident.<p>

"What's Blake doing?" Ruby mumbled from where she stood nearby, a confused expression on her face as she watched the faunus scrambling around looking for books. Yang lay on her own bed with one hand propping her head up, an amused grin on her features.

"Vomit-boy wants to borrow a book to read while he recovers." Blake continued to ignore them as she rummaged around under her bed, using her legs to keep her purchase as her arm vanished into the darkness. The comment had been an innocent enough one. Jaune had complained of being a little bored while the others were in class and Pyrrha had suggested he do some studying. Seeing the look of dread on his leader's face Ren had compromised by saying he could read some novels.

From there Blake had been the obvious enough choice. The look on his face as he asked her if he could borrow a book… well, she was sure Ruby and Pyrrha would have called it cute, in a shy endearing manner. Blake personally thought it looked a little uncertain and desperate – but she let it go. He didn't really have any reason to trust her offer of friendship, and other people _had_ taken advantage of him before.

"Yeah… I was kinda there for that…" Ruby mumbled again in her trademark manner. Weiss was scribbling at her desk on some homework but did look over occasionally to see how she was doing. "I just don't understand why Blake's like… panicking over it?"

"She wants it to be the perfect book for her boytoy!" The blonde taunted with a dirty leer, drawing a dignified snort from Weiss and a horrified gasp from Ruby.

"Blake likes Jaune!?" And Oh Gods, if _that_ wasn't something to cut off immediately.

"Don't listen to her Ruby. She is a bad influence." Blake instructed as she paused in her search to fix Yang with a glare she normally reserved for Sun. Naturally the more feminine blonde seemed completely impervious to the threat.

The larger danger here for Blake though was definitely the younger sister. And not just because Blake suspected she harboured a completely irrational and insane crush on the doofus Knight. The idea of Ruby becoming jealous, or worse, feeling betrayed by Blake was bad enough.

But _far_ worse was the danger of Ruby actually _supporting_ them… Oh dear Gods, no. Because when Ruby wanted to _help_ you with something she was like an over-eager puppy. And like most useless varieties of the dog species, she would bumble around making the situation a million times worse. All with the best of intentions of course!

"_Hey Jaune. Blake maybe loves you, can you marry her!?" "Hey Pyrrha, Blake loves Jaune, can you be a bridesmaid?" "Hey Ozpin, can you announce over the PA System that Blake loves Jaune?"_

"I do _not_ have that interest in Jaune Arc. Your sister is just trying to make up for her own lack of a love life by making up her own fantasies of mine."

"Heyyyyyy!" Yang whined back as her head collapsed onto the pillow at the burn. Another more amused sound coming from Weiss between the scratching of her pencil on paper.

"Okay…" Ruby accepted with a noticeably brighter smile. "So why are you having trouble on choosing a book?"

"Most likely she doesn't want to choose any story with a romantic subplot, in case the idiotic Arc makes the same assumption your juvenile sister did."

"So she thinks if she gives Jaune a book with romance in it… that Jaune will think she's trying to make a hint?" The small leader tapped her chin with a finger as she said this, as though the deduction had been her own all along.

"A little yeah." Blake admitted with a careless shrug. The idea had crossed her mind, but it had really only stopped her from giving him a _purely_ romance novel. That would definitely have been a bit too awkward for her to give to anyone really, not just Jaune Arc. What she didn't want to admit is that she actually was scared of giving him a book he wouldn't like…

_But if I say that then Yang will take it the wrong way…_ It wasn't that she wanted to impress the guy or anything. But these were _her_ books. She had collected her favourite tales and stories over her life, and they were her solace during some of the harder months in the White Fang. The last thing she wanted was for someone she had even a passing acquaintance to, to say they were bad books.

And damn it, if someone was going to be reading one of _her_ babies. Then they were going to damn well _ love_ it!

Which had led to her current position.

_Adventure fantasy, romance, detective… smu-… dark fantasy… definitely not this one. _What did she even know of the person in question!? He was blonde, had a sword and a shield and seven sisters… not exactly the best place to start. Then again… there was someone here who was somewhat comparable in tastes to him…

"What books did you like to read when you were younger Ruby?"

"Uh? Umm… I liked hero stories where the hero takes down the villain and saves the world." She seemed excited as she said it, before launching into a story of how Yang used to read stories to her when she was younger. Weiss seemed to slump in her seat before resigning herself to not getting any work done. Blake meanwhile went back to her own internal musings. Sleeping near Yang had given her an admirable ability to ignore loud ferocious noises when trying to fall asleep, so tuning Ruby out was fairly easy.

So adventure stories then. She didn't have any as simple as Ruby described… she was far too cynical to see the world in such clear colours of good and evil. But she did have plenty of tales where darker and more mature heroes overcame great odds. Considering that Jaune and Ruby both aimed to become "heroes" as it were, the stories might be of interest to them… or they might disappoint them with how dark these heroes were… that was a risk.

_This one ought to do…_ Blake considered as she lifted the book in one hand. The story was about a young commander who fought with great honour in a war for what he believed in. As the war continued and innocents were dragged in the commander began to realise the folly of war and sought a way to bring it to an end. In the end he came across an artefact that would grant him the power of a God, which he used to end the fighting and even heal and resurrect all the people who lost their lives…

After which he realised the artefact was cursed and a devil would take over his body to destroy all mankind, and he arranged for his best friend to kill him to protect everyone. Thus he died, taking down the demon possessing him as he died and making himself a martyr, and stopping the war in the process.

A story of sacrifice and loss, but there was no way the man couldn't be considered a true hero. And maybe the tale would also get across why Blake felt Jaune deserved to be thanked for risking himself for her.

"We got a winner?" Yang drawled from nearby, causing Blake to jump a little as Ruby also zipped across to look down at her. "Should I check it first to make sure the scenes are saucy enough?"

"Maybe I should lend some of my books to Ruby to read through, she's the mature sister after all." Yang's eyes narrowed dangerously as they flashed briefly to red.

"I think we'll have some unpleasantness if you corrupt my little sister." The two of them locked eyes as Blake's narrowed at the impromptu staring contest. Neither of them paid any attention to Ruby who was pouting nearby.

"Really… I'm fifteen… not ten…"

* * *

><p>"Hey Blake." The recovering blonde greeted as she walked into the medical room. Already he was beginning to look as good as new. The IV drip had been removed the day before since he didn't need any help taking in liquid.<p>

"Hey." She greeted back with a neutral smile as she closed the door behind her. They hadn't really had a chance to talk one to one since the last time, but even when they were all in their usual group Blake had made sure to give him a greeting nod of his own. "You feeling any better?"

"I'm good to go!" He boasted while holding one arm up as if to pump iron. The scene would have looked more impressive if the boy had any muscles to speak of, but she decided to spare his dignity and not comment.

"I'm sure Pyrrha will be pleased to see you ready for training." She instead offered, enjoying the look of instant horror on his face before he hid it behind a rather weak mask.

"Ugh… the thought of that is almost enough to make me ill again." He shuddered before fixing her with a weak glare. "You won't tell Pyrrha I said that, right?" Blake drew a hand across her lips as if to zip them shut and he let out a small laugh.

It turned out he was surprisingly easy to speak to so long as she let him direct the conversation. Maybe it was because of his nervous disposition – Jaune seemed to not like any silences so would often do his best to fill them with inane babble. Just letting him do so and offering comments every now and then was enough to keep him smiling.

Maybe it was an unfair way to treat him, like she was dealing with a young child and letting them do all the talking, but she just didn't really know what she could talk to him about at the moment… not when he still didn't, and hopefully wouldn't, know anything about her past.

But now they might have something to talk about, right?

"I brought you one of my books, like Ren suggested." She waved the thick paperback at him from her position by the door. Feeling a little embarrassed she quickly walked over to his bed, not having realised how rude she probably had looked standing so far away.

"Really? Thanks!" He pushed himself up in his bed while arranging his pillows into a sitting position. Internally she let out a small breath of relief at his palpable excitement as she handed the book over to him. When Ren had suggested he read some books she had been half wondering if Jaune had faked his excitement just to get out of Pyrrha's well-meaning suggestion of schoolwork.

Instead he looked genuinely relieved as he read the synopsis on the back cover, his eyes lighting up at the plot.

"I promise I'll look after this Blake! Really!" He looked so earnest and serious when he said that, she couldn't help but let out a small laugh and nod to him.

"I'll hold you to that. Though…" She paused before the next words could come out but continued at his earnest look. "I wouldn't mind knowing what you think of it. When you're done." More for her own curiosity than anything else, but it would also give them something to actually _talk_ about properly for a change.

And also she could admit to a small amount of selfishness in hoping that he might become a book-reading buddy. It wasn't as though she could talk to Ruby and Weiss about books, and Yang was obviously out of the question unless she wanted to discuss comics. In a school dedicated to combat it was annoyingly hard to find someone who enjoyed books and could recommend one to her.

"Er… Blake?" Her eyes snapped open wide as she looked at the hand waving in front of her face before she stumbled back in surprise.

"Sorry!" She apologised while holding back a blush at being caught spacing out. "Distracted. What were you saying?"

"Just that I'll be happy to talk about it yeah. It's so boring in here when none of the other guys are around! This is going to be my Holy Grail for the next twelve hours! If I'm still trapped here tomorrow… could I maybe borrow another?"

Blake nodded with a small smile at his question, earning a thankful grin in return as he settled down and began to read the story to himself. Blake snuck out with her trademark stealth as he began to get lost in the tale of civil war.

* * *

><p>Yang grumbled to herself as the object of her latest attentions escaped to the medical bay to look after their resident trouble magnet. With vomit-boy locked away, school had been surprisingly boring for her. It wasn't that Jaune was the sole source of amusement available, but with him out for the count team JNPR was a little more subdued.<p>

That got boring pretty quickly, and P-Money didn't blush as hard when Yang made suggestive comments if Jaune wasn't around. Ren was too good at reining Nora in as well, and it just made everything so damn … _normal_. Yang did not _do_ normal.

"Hey sis." A small voice pined from below, drawing Yang's attention to her adorable little sister. The girl had drawn her hood up as she occasionally did when nervous about something.

"Sup Rubes?"

"Do you think Blake likes Jaune?" The younger girl's eyes were wide as she said this, and her hands were playing with the sheets of Yang's bed as she seemed to peek above the covers. Yang's brain fizzled and died.

_Oh shit, is this the talk? Is this Ruby's first crush? Is this potential comedy GOLD!?_

Yes. Yes it was. Potentially all of the above, but definitely the last one.

"Come on up sis!" Yang urged while putting her arms under her sibling's shoulders to half drag her onto the bed with her. Ruby squeaked in surprise but quickly complied and scrambled up onto the mattress with her.

"Now what makes you think Blake is looking to sink her kitty claws into Jaune?" Ruby shuffled as she laid down next to her sister, with her back pressed into Yang's front. It was a position Ruby had used to take when they were younger and she would want to sleep with Yang.

"Well she's just acting weird, you know? Blake's never really talked with Jaune before. And now she's been alone with him twice, and is choosing books for him to read."

_Oh, I couldn't have put it better myself Rubes! I'll have to remember that one, heh heh. Still… I know Blake isn't into him, and I can't just lie to my sister and say Blake is…_

"Hmmm, you're right there sis. That _is _unusual for Blake. Taking down school notes for him too? I mean Pyrrha has been trying to get Jaune's attention by helping him get better at training…" She let her words trail off as Ruby gasped in realisation.

"You think Blake is trying to win his attention by helping him improve his studies!?"

"Could be…" Yang hedged with a huge grin on her face. She wouldn't lie to her sister for her own amusement… but who could possibly stop Ruby's over-active imagination? Certainly not her!

"It makes perfect sense!" Ruby whispered hurriedly, making rather little sense at all. Then again if Rubes _did_ have a crush on Jaune, then Yang personally thought that made no sense either. Jaune was pretty fit, she would be the first to admit that. But Yang preferred men to have a bit of an edge, something that made them that little bit more dangerous or exciting… the biggest danger with Jaune was vomit on your shoes… Also would it kill him to try and do something with his hair?

"Yeah… yeah…" Yang murmured, agreeing with something Ruby had said that she definitely hadn't actually heard at all, but by this point Ruby was pretty much off in fantasy land. "So… You got a thing for Vomit-boy?"

"NO!" Ruby shouted out unconvincingly while going ramrod straight in Yang's arms. Internally she giggled but pretended to be serious as she nodded that she accepted Ruby's answer. From nearby she heard the muttered comment about Ruby's taste from their little heiress and smiled in silent agreement.

She wasn't going to get aggressive in Jaune's face over this. Mostly because she had no doubt the boy wouldn't actually have the balls to ask her little sister out, but also because Yang was fairly sure it was just puppy love on Ruby's part. The first guy she meets at Beacon, who showed her kindness when she fell over? _To be young again, sigh…_

"M-maybe I should finish some of my homework too, and I could help Jaune study if he doesn't understand any of Blake's notes." Ruby mumbled as she wiggled and wormed her way out of Yang's arms and tumbled the short fall to the floor. From up on her bed Yang's eyes widened as she imagined Ruby actively trying to _compete_ with Blake… for something Blake didn't even want… the look on Blake's face…

_Oh Jaune you glorious bastard…. Even locked in the med bay you still don't fail to entertain me. No matter what anyone else says, you're my God damned hero!_

Less than fifty pages into his new read, Jaune shivered in sudden fear.

* * *

><p><strong>Oh my God Coeur, are you <strong>_**still**_** setting the scene? Well, sort of, but it's necessary. We've created a genuine reason for Blake and Jaune to interact now, and Blake has extended the olive branch… I've actually based this interaction at the bottom with what happened to ME with an old girlfriend… we were just planning to be friends and her friends constantly teased us about being boyfriend and girlfriend and we were always defensive. Then later on when we did, they were all like "told you so." – Though I didn't have an adorable little puppy also trying to vie for my attention, or a redheaded Amazon. Next chapter, I swear - Some fluffy friendship scenes between the two T_T**

**The book is a real one described in this chapter, by quite the famous author too – though I'll be impressed if anyone can recognise it from the short description I gave it.**

**As for Yang leading Ruby along like this… I think Yang is the kind of person to teach Ruby by teasing lessons, like she did in the first episodes when she abandoned Ruby, and then suggested they have different teams. Seems like she is the kind of sister who wants to support you by letting you make mistakes, but within safe boundaries. And she considers Jaune fairly safe since he wouldn't dare make a move on Ruby.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Before any panic arrives. This fic WILL be updated tomorrow! By noon (English time)!**

But I need your help badly on a rather important decision to be made here, and it is "incredibly important" as it will determine how the story continues from this point onwards.

My original idea was to follow the series quite faithfully, with the whole White Fang storyline, etc…. but the RWBY series really doesn't have much interaction between Team JNPR and RWBY, which would limit Jaune and Blake's chances for interaction… particularly in any high stress situations, i.e. combat.

I would be limited to them chatting between missions.

Or I can create a new story arc for them. It would be an original arc, likely focused on grim alone. I don't intend to include any major OC's (just like one chapter people who aren't important). But it would allow me to have Blake and Jaune actually fight together some times. And also grow as people.

So your choices!

* * *

><p>Follow the storyline – though once we reach the end of series 2 I will have to make stuff up anyway. There will be chapters with no Blake x Jaune interaction though….<p>

* * *

><p>Create a new story arc for them, it will not follow canon but will NOT be a poorly hidden excuse to create a bunch of OC teams.<p>

* * *

><p><strong>New Arc Idea Summary<strong>

Grim raids on a few small border villages have resulted in an unexpected number of casualties on innocent civilians, and as of yet there seems to be no rhyme or reason to the incursions. Where before Grim have always acted much like an invading army, pushing as far as they can before being killed. These ones seem to know when to retreat before any counter attack can be mobilised.

Hunters from all the major Academies are being mobilised in various degrees to combat the threat, and as a first year team, RWBY and JNPR are employed in a scouting / investigative role.

Things go about as calmly as they usually do for anime main characters. As always they live with the "May you live in interesting times" curse. Lol.

* * *

><p><strong>As a new author I know i am not meant to release chapters like this, and I am a little frustrated that I have been forced to do so, this early as well. But after planning my next few chapters I have been feeling a little frustrated at how little interaction opportunities Jaune and Blake would have. <strong>

**This is why regardless of the decision of everyone here, I will wake up early on my Saturday and write a chapter in full as an apology. As I expected this week has been insanely busy for me.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Thanks for your help everyone, the response was pretty unanimous in that I should go with my own storyline here, and to be honest I agree too. The first half of this then will seem pretty familiar as this was what I was planning to include anyway, but it diverts halfway through. **

**In regards to some people who have been invading my PM box to complain that I am being unfair to Jaune… I realise that Jaune is a well-liked character, and I like him too. But he "isn't" exactly a woman's dream and most of the characters show that in how they react to him. When I write things like "seemed to be immature." I am writing from a character's perspective. In this chapter I describe Neptune as handsome, but I am not attracted to him… it is the character's view. All of Jaune's qualities are "deep" qualities inside him, like kindness, bravery, etc… He lacks the "immediate" qualities that catch people's (or a woman's) attention, and that is why he is a bit useless at attracting interest. This is true in real life romance. There has to be something to make a girl WANT to learn more about you… and then see all your kindness, generosity, etc… **

**As people watching an anime, we get to see all his good points. And it's easy to say "I'd date him!" When you're not there and taking the risk yourself… I'm sure you've all met girls (and guys) you find unattractive… do you always give them a chance to impress you when you don't like them? Of course not! Life isn't always so fair sadly and we are all selfish to some degree.**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 5<strong>

* * *

><p>Blake sighed as the words began to merge on the pages in front of her, the captivating storyline failing to register in her mind. Amber eyes closed as a long sigh escaped her lips and she rubbed her forehead. Even this last solace was being taken from her by the White Fang. It still didn't make sense, why were they working with that petty thief Roman?<p>

"Hey." A masculine voice caught her attention as she looked up from the book in her hands. She knew who it was from his greeting long before she saw his face.

"Hey." Blake echoed back to the blonde knight with a forced smile as he sat down in a seat next to her, leaning his head back on a bookshelf. She hadn't realised Jaune had been released from the med bay but quickly pushed away her irritation at the current situation lest she insult him. It was hardly his fault she was so exhausted, and it wouldn't be fair to him to snap at him.

"I didn't expect to see you in the library." She commented simply, partly curious but mostly just making idle conversation.

"Ah… well, the rest of the team is coming to do some team studying. Just saw you and thought I'd come say hi." Blake nodded in response as she let her book drop a little to give him more of her attention. The other members of JNPR were nowhere in sight, so no doubt the Knight had simply come a little earlier to grab a table for them. "I finished your book by the way."

"That's good." Blake responded as she closed the cover on her own to regard him. Maybe a good conversation would be what she needed to properly distract herself. If Jaune noticed how tired she looked he didn't comment on it. "What did you think?"

"It was good." He commented as he let it rest down on the table in front of them. "Really good, a little sad though." For a moment she almost rolled her eyes at the lack of explanation, before noticing the pinched look on his face. Blake almost let out a laugh as she quickly recognised it as the look he had when he desperately wanted to say something but was holding back.

"What did you think of his decision, at the end?"

"I think…" He paused at that, seemingly trying to figure out how to phrase the thoughts in his mind. Blake waited patiently, her bow twitching slightly as she wondered at what he might say. "I think… I think he was a coward."

Blake's eyes widened in surprise. Jaune turned to look at her, a fierce expression in his eyes as his jaw seemed to harden in silent anger.

"He took the easy way out. He relied on something he had no knowledge of, and nearly doomed everyone because of it. Then he had his friend kill him to take the monster down with him. It was the easy way out."

Blake's ears stilled at the way he was looking at her. It was an expression she'd never seen on his face before, staring straight into her eyes as if daring her to disagree with him. A commanding look, filled with fierce emotion. It was strange, and for a moment it made her feel like she had forgotten to take a breath.

"He… he did sacrifice his life for peace though." She offered, unable to look away from his eyes as he stared into her own.

"He sacrificed a life he could not live anyway. I don't think it's a difficult choice to make when you will die either way. The true hero was Mulgrave."

"The friend he asked to kill him?" She couldn't say she disagreed with that statement, but she did wonder at Jaune's reasoning.

"He was the one who really sacrificed everything. He was forced to sacrifice his best friend, his loyalty… his morals. At the end he wandered around in grief at what he had done. No one thanked him for what he gave up…"

He blinked then, and in a moment it seemed as though the spell was broken. Blake took the excuse to quickly look away and let out a short breath. What a strange feeling…

"Maybe now though." She whispered after a pregnant pause. "You'll see why I felt you needed to be thanked for risking your life to save mine?"

This time his eyes widened in surprise as his mouth seemed to fall open. Any and all signs of the serious and stern leader she had seen before evaporated as he seemed to wilt, blush and stiffen all in one gangly movement. A second later he slumped with a long breath escaping his lips.

"Hah… Yeah. You're right." He shook his head as he looked at her, a more normal goofy expression on his face.

"So once more. Thanks for saving my life Jaune." He blushed slightly while nodding.

"Yeah… I wouldn't want to see you or any of our friends hurt, so I'd do the same again. But I'll get stronger too, so I don't have to leave anyone behind like _he_ did."

"I think that's really mature."

Blake let her amber eyes rove across his face as he said that, and for a moment she honestly thought he was the stronger hero than the one in that book, just for the commitment he had to his friends and team.

And in a way that only made her feel worse about herself. Not just for the way she was acting right now, but also for the concerns she kept from her team mates. After her past in the White Fang had been revealed to them they had been nothing short of supportive, even going so far as to risk their lives in combat against Torchwick.

She couldn't change the worry she felt at knowing that the White Fang were continuing their plans with the criminal and what that might mean for the safety of everyone involved, innocent and otherwise.

"Errr… Blake? You're kinda staring at me…" Her eyes blinked once, twice then a third time in rapid succession as her orbs focused on the sight in front of her face. Jaune looked red, very red and also horribly uncomfortable. Clearly she'd become distracted and wandered off in her own mind again, but had left herself staring intently at his face…

"Oh I _really_ hope we're interrupting something here." A dreaded voice drawled from nearby. Blake's eyes zoned in on the face of her partner, who was currently wearing possibly the most shit-eating grin Blake had ever seen on her face. Next to her was their young hooded leader, who seemed to be standing sideways on and looking at Blake from the corner of her eyes.

"Something on Vomit-boy's face Blake?"

Ignoring the fiend, Blake's eyes zipped back to Jaune who was still looking a little uncomfortable at the teasing now aimed at the two of them. Instead of replying to Yang, Blake just leant back and let out a tired sigh.

"Sorry Jaune. I've been getting distracted and my mind wandered. I was just staring into nothingness. "

"Th-that's okay. You seemed out of it when I came by. Anything I can do to help?" He looked so earnest when he asked that she couldn't help but smile as she shook her head. The White fang was something that she had been involved in, and was something that she didn't want to drag other people into. Bad enough that her own team had been pulled into the mess, but she didn't want to do the same to team JNPR. They deserved to be able to live as normal students… in a monster fighting academy.

"Woohooo! Jauney!" A loud voice sang out before Yang could continue drawing their, and every other person's attention, to the bouncing orange haired girl who was dramatically waving at them from a mere four metres away. She was stood on tiptoes as if hailing a person many miles away.

"Nora please this is a library!" Ren hissed in reprimand, attempting to quieten the girl as the redheaded champion subtly distanced herself from the pair to come stand by Jaune.

"What? Ren I can't hear you when you're whispering!" The bomber hollered back.

_There goes my relaxation time…_

* * *

><p><em>I guess Jaune has sacrificed himself for me here as well.<em> Blake thought to herself in amusement as she half watched the game the rest of her team was playing with the blonde knight. Though Blake was familiar with the game of Remnant, she had felt simply too distracted to give it any attention. Thankfully Ruby had been quick to accept her excuses, which was unusual, but had then eagerly suggested that Jaune play with them. He had quickly agreed.

At the time Blake had wondered if it was simply to be polite, or perhaps to have a chance to get closer to Weiss. A few moments later though, when the rest of team JNPR had arrived and sat down at the table with Blake, she had realised his true purpose.

Escaping studying. She really needed to give him more credit for his strategic thinking it seemed, Jaune was a team leader for a reason.

From what she could hear Yang was dominating the game and Weiss didn't seem to know the rules. Blake herself hadn't had much free time to play games when she was younger, and doubted she would have been able to offer anything in curtailing her spree. Turned out Jaune was pretty bad at the game as well, though he was admirably teaming up with Ruby to try and hold Yang off. No news yet on whether the admirable effort would be ultimately in vain.

"Jaune has been reading a lot since he got out of the medical bay." A feminine voice commented from nearby, and a gentle nudge of a leg against her own told her she was the one being addressed. Holding back a sigh she turned to regard the redhead sitting next to her who looked to be regarding her with a very unusual expression.

"Well I did lend him a book to read." Pyrrha nodded once in response while tilting her head to the side as if examining Blake. The faunus stared back into those green eyes, unwilling to break eye contact even though she wasn't sure what this was all about.

"Perhaps you would let me borrow it afterwards?" This time there was a certain inflection in her words that Blake struggled to place.

"I have no problem with that." Blake answered simply, her eyes narrowing in confusion as Pyrrha seemed to lean back with a more natural smile on her face. Idly she wondered what the redhead was doing, but chose to ignore it as Jaune let out a long groan of disappointment.

It seemed as though the confederate nations of Ruby and Jaune had finally succumbed to the territorial might of the Yang Empire. It somehow didn't surprise her that Yang would be the best at such a game. Despite her constant teasing and less than serious attitude, there was no doubting the sheer level of cunning that girl hid behind those lilac eyes.

"Hey guys!" A male voice called out in greeting, once more cutting into the usual peace of the library. Blake let out a quiet sigh as Sun Wukong and an unknown man wandered over to their two tables. The newcomer looked interesting enough in a strange way, with bright blue hair and a pair of goggles above his eyes. Blake thought he actually looked a little handsome though he clearly knew that too from his exaggerated swagger.

The others offered their usual greetings to the monkey faunus with a clothing disorder while Blake buried her nose back into her book hoping he somehow wouldn't notice her. It wasn't that she didn't _like_ him per se… but he had an irritating habit of-

"Hey Blake! How you doing?"

-of trying to flirt with her, god damn it. It wasn't that he was unattractive or that she didn't appreciate his interest… but could he perhaps be a little more subtle about it? She liked to think this was how Weiss felt around Jaune, and for a moment felt an incredible camaraderie with the young heiress.

"Sun." She greeted back simply with a nod, hoping he would take her greeting and leave it at that. Instead her attention seemed to bolster him, making him slide up alongside her to talk more with her. Pyrrha happily made room for him, and for a moment Blake stared at the redhead… Pyrrha really seemed to have a big smile on her face as she let Sun sit down between them. If her interest in Jaune wasn't already old news Blake might have thought she had an attraction in Sun…

"What you reading?" The blonde faunus asked with a big grin as he leaned closer as though to look at the words. Blake closed the book with an internal sigh, not quite feeling comfortable with him leaning that close, and unable to read properly when she could feel someone watching her.

"Just the next in a series." Blake answered with a forced smile. She liked Sun, honestly she did. Just not the way he apparently hoped she did, and it made her feel terrible. She felt guilty when he approached, because he would look happy to see her, and she would feel a thrill of irritation. And then she would feel angry because she didn't want to feel guilty and didn't feel she deserved to…

So she would bite down her frustration and attempt to be as polite and friendly as she could, because he did have things she liked about him and he was amusing at times. If only he'd been interested in Yang or someone else, then she had a feeling they could have become good friends.

"-Snow Angel." A different voice commented, giving her a welcome distraction as she turned to Weiss to appreciate the usual explosion. Only for it not to happen for once.

Weiss blushed and giggled. Jaune's mouth fell open. Pyrrha's eyebrow rose, Yang's grin widened and Blake could even feel her own head tilt to the side in silent confusion. The new guy had just coined Weiss with the same hated nickname Jaune had given her, yet the heiress had apparently found it cute.

Blake wanted to laugh for the first time in a few hours, though she couldn't tell whether it was at how red Weiss looked, or unfairly confused Jaune did. The blonde knight's arms were out in front of him, as if he was gesturing at the two of them and asking for divine answers.

"That's Neptune." Sun answered her unasked question as he nodded towards the new blue haired male. "Friend of mine from back before. Good guy, very smooth with the ladies."

Any further response was immediately interrupted as the lights in the library dimmed before returning to their normal brightness a moment later. A dull horn began to undulate as all the people in the library looked up in confusion.

"That your fire alarm?" Neptune asked of them all with a frown of confusion on his face. Yang shook her head while the others looked between themselves. The fire alarm was a bell sound, as though a small hammer struck a bell a thousand times in quick succession. Their questions were answered a moment later though when the recognisable voice of Glynda Goodwitch spoke out over the intercom system.

"All students. Beacon Academy is initiating protocol one, this is not a test. All students are commanded to return to their dorms immediately and await further instructions. I repeat. All students must return to their respective dorms immediately."

"Protocol one, are we under attack!?" A voice shouted out from nearby, as though a signal had been struck every person seemed to shout out in confusion or shock. Despite the confusion the fear of Glynda Goodwitch motivated them all to quickly scrambled and run from the library.

"Uh!? Shouldn't we run too?" Jaune stammered as everyone else seemed too confused to move.

"Y-yeah. Team Rwby, to our dorm room!" Their redheaded leader commanded as she shot to her feet and used her semblance to flee the room. Yang, Weiss and Blake share their own look at being so quickly abandoned before scrambling to run from the room.

"What is protocol one!?" Blake called out as she quickly caught up with the slower Weiss and Yang. The blonde brawler simply shook her head in confusion.

"Why am I not surprised you have no idea Yang!" Weiss snapped out. "Protocol one means Beacon Academy is responding to a national call for aid. Last time it was used was during the Faunus Wars."

"You think the White Fang?" The blonde asked, echoing the fears that Blake had been harbouring herself. The White Fang had been stealing all of that dust and storing it somewhere… clearly they had a plan and with that much dust she had known it wouldn't be a peaceful one. Could they have detonated it in a major population centre!? Had they declared war?

Had they strayed so far from what they had originally hoped for? Out of the corner of her eye she ignored the worried glances Yang was sending her, as well as the pitying ones from Weiss. No matter what happened, if the worst came to it, she would fight for team Rwby. Not the White Fang she had once sworn her loyalty to.

* * *

><p>Their wait had been a short one. Barely ten minutes after they had arrived in their dorm a private call to Ruby's scroll had urged them to head to the headmaster's office for briefing. On the way they had met team JNPR who had received the same summons. It seemed as though their team knew what the protocol means as well, for they all had tense and worried expressions. Even Nora seemed subdued.<p>

Glynda Goodwitch met them at the door before urging them inside. The eight of them entered the Headmaster's office for what was the first time for many of them, Blake included. The room was huge but sparsely furnished, with a single desk occupying most of their attention from which Ozpin himself sat behind.

Stood next to him was a man Blake knew by reputation alone. General James Ironwood himself. Blake hadn't initially known the Headmaster might be so far up the food chain, though it made sense considering the political asset hunters were… as a man who could shape the future of a quarter of this Generation's hunters, Ozpin was clearly a powerful political figure.

"Team RWBY, Team JNPR. Thank you for coming promptly." The green suited man seemed as calm as ever as he sipped from his mug of coffee. If the apparent state of emergency bothered him then he was able to conceal it with admirable ability. Their own responses were more varied. With a few people greeting him by his position and others simply nodding. Blake remained silent.

"This is General James Ironwood, and he will be conducting operations alongside myself in regards to this state of emergency." The general nodded to them, but the diversion seemed too much for their least patient team member.

"Gah! Enough of the introductions! What is this all about!?" Yang shouted in frustrated anger as her eyes flashed red. Beside her Ruby seemed to wilt in on herself but didn't say anything.

"If you will allow me, Ozpin?" The headmaster nodded once as the General strode forward to stand before the eight of them. Much like the headmaster he didn't seem to pay Yang's outburst any credence.

"Sixteen hours ago Vale lost contact with four small villages on our outermost border. Though this would not normally be cause for alarm, each village raised an alert before they went silent. Our immediate response was to send bullheads to recon the area. This is what we found."

A holographic screen opened beside him showing a bird's eyes view of a village in flames. Black smoke was billowing as the somewhat grainy image continued to pan. Blake heard a gasp from beside her but could not tear her eyes away from the image.

"Was this the White Fang?" She whispered before she could stop herself. The General looked at her for a moment, his eyes seeming to roam to her bow as she stiffened. If he had figured out her true nature then he didn't make any mention of it - simply turning away to address the team as a whole.

"Doubtful. One of these villages was predominantly Faunus so it would make no sense for them to risk their support by attacking them. We expect that this is a Grim incursion." That news calmed her a little, before she mentally shook herself back into focus. So the White Fang were not involved, that didn't mean she could stop panicking about what was clearly a disaster.

"In the face of a potential Grim incursion the military is mobilising to defend other villages and towns on that border. We should be able to prevent any more innocent civilians losing their lives. However this does not help us address the treat itself."

"And you want us to stop them?" Jaune asked in a quiet voice. Though to Blake he didn't seem scared as he said the words, more concerned and maybe even resigned. Blake could understand why, it sounded like a suicide mission to expect them to halt a Grim incursion. Ozpin interrupted as he stood up from his seat.

"The Incursion will be dealt with by hunters and huntresses, as well as the military. Hunters-in-training such as yourselves will be providing support services to those people." His words caused everyone to relax a little. Supporting the more qualified hunters was well within their abilities.

"Hunters such as yourselves are the future protectors of our world and we cannot afford to risk you so early in your careers, as such the missions you undertake will have as reduced a risk as we can guarantee you. That said we cannot account for all variables so you will still need to be on your guard. Is this understood?"

"Yes Headmaster." They all echoed this time. The General nodded, apparently pleased with their acceptance, while their headmaster simply took another long drink.

"I will explain the task that the Headmaster has advised both your teams for." The General continued as the holographic image changed to show a map. Blake could make out details of a small village.

"Elgard was one of the first villages we lost communication with, and bullhead recon has shown that the entire area has been decimated. By this time the fires will have died away and it is likely abandoned." The holographic image changed to show an image of the village, clearly taken in happier times as the buildings all stood in one piece and there could be seen people wandering about.

"Your scrolls will be provided with all details we have on the layout of the city, as well as all images our intelligence divisions were able to source. Both tourism images and city records. Your task is to infiltrate the ruins and investigate the attack."

"What are we looking for?" Yang asked.

"Ideally we would like answers to the following questions. What type of Grim attacked the village. From which direction did the attack occur. In what numbers did the Grim attack. Upon finishing, in what direction did the Grim travel. And why did they attack."

"That's quite a lot of questions…" Pyrrha mumbled from nearby as the others looked amongst themselves.

"It is not expected that you will answer all of these questions, but any answers will help us formulate a solution to the problem. It is hoped that we might be able to distinguish if this was individual attacks that happened at the same time… perhaps some form of seasonal disturbance which agitated the Grim."

"Or if they acted together…" Ren opined in the following silence. The General frowned in response but nodded. "Though Grim often travel in packs, there hasn't been any previous indication that Grim can co-operate between species. Not beyond immediate convenience anyway..."

"We have that working in our favour." The General responded. "That the Grim might be moving together is a worst case scenario, and could still be explained if there was some form of disturbance causing a large scale migration. Even then, a migration could be disasterous for the people of Vale, and as such we need to know."

"When do we leave?" Ruby interrupted as she stepped forwards. Blake watched their leader as the smaller girl seemed to shake in contained anger. It wasn't an emotion she had often seen in the young girl before but given her dedication to being a hunter she could understand her impatience.

"Immediately." Ozpin responded as he approached them. "First year teams are being paired and will be sent to the worst hit towns. The Grim are attracted by negativity from humans, as such they will not likely return to a location they have already struck as there will be no humans remaining. You are advised that there might still be stragglers around, but they should be little danger to yourselves. Your biggest dangers will be faulty architecture. The fires will have weakened the structures and you will need to establish a base as you investigate. Be very careful of any buildings you enter, as well as wherever you choose to make camp."

"And any survivors we find?" Ruby asked. Blake's eyes closed slowly as she saw the distant look in the Headmaster's eyes. The message that he did not believe they had even the smallest chance of finding a survivor was clear to her… though perhaps less obvious to the more innocent members of team RWBY.

"Protect any survivors you find." He offered, apparently unwilling to dismiss Ruby's concerns completely. "Upper year teams will be taking on slightly more dangerous missions as well as acting as commanders for first year teams if necessary. Your operational commander in this town will be Coco from team CFVY."

"Velv's team?" Yang whispered to the others.

"You are free to make most decisions yourselves, but if you are unsure on what direction to take or believe you have gathered all the information you are able to. Then you should contact team CFVY directly for further instructions."

* * *

><p>Blake watched her team leader as the younger girl watched the back entrance of the bullhead slowly closing on them, cutting out the sight of Beacon Academy. Though Ruby didn't say anything her feelings were fairly obvious to Blake, and apparently Yang as well. The older sister walked up to her and threw an arm over the younger girl's shoulder before leading her to one of the seats nearby.<p>

"It feels like we're saying goodbye to Beacon Academy." The redheaded girl whispered quietly to the two of them as she sat down. Yang grinned and ruffled her hair before pulling the hood up.

"We're just saying see you later." She laughed. "We'd have been going on missions in a few months anyway, we're just getting a head start, right Blake?" The two of them turned to regard her as she smiled back with a confidence she didn't really feel.

"Exactly. It's time for us to try and make a difference."

If they could.

* * *

><p><strong>So here is the beginning of the new arc. I tried to imagine how Beacon might act in a disaster situation, and I figured they might ask year 1 teams to do this. In terms of the danger it is no less dangerous then what Ozpin sent team RWBY on in the Mt. Glenn episode. <strong>

**Oh! The Book was Stromrider by David Gemmell. I read it when I was around 14-15 and it made me cry at the end, but I am a real book lover. My views do match Jaune's though in this. Poor Mulgrave… **


	7. Chapter 7

**Thanks everyone for the support on the new story arc idea. I agree with what a lot of people said, particularly the theme of "well you'd have to do it in a bit anyway…"**

**As for the amusing review that asked if this was a Pyrrha x Sun. Don't worry! I know your pain, since a lot of writers seem to be terrified of hurting any characters, so instead of say Pyrrha not getting with Jaune – they try to make themselves feel better by making her suddenly like Sun or Ren… or Oobleck. I won't do that. She was friendly with Sun, as she was feeling threatened by Blake and thought to herself, oh hey, Sun likes Blake – I should help them get together! I realise that in love, there are winners and losers... and while i wont crush Pyrrha, she will have to grow as a person and get over it like a real person would, and that will happen in this fic. No crazy "Oh i suddenly realise i didnt love him, it was a friend-love, so im not hurt at all! Convenient, eh?"**

**I do like Sun, and I could write a Pyrrha x Sun, but it would have to be a long piece. Maybe where they make a friendship over liking people who won't return their feelings, confiding in one another and supporting each other. Through shared pain they spend time together and hang out, asking each other how to attract the opposite sex, etc… After a while they become great friends, then Jaune dates someone and Pyrrha is crushed… Sun is comforting and in a moment of desperate need for comfort she kisses him, before calling it a mistake and running. Pyrrha feels she has cheated on Jaune, while Sun feels conflicted over enjoying the kiss more than he ought to… a week of avoiding each other passes before Sun asks Blake out… she notes that he lacks his usual insistence and doesn't look like "she" is what he really wants. Sun caves and explains about Pyrrha while Blake smiles and tells Sun to man up and take what he wants… and he goes to Pyrrha and decides to win her over, etc…. That's how I would make it work, but that would be a whole story in itself!**

**Anyway, enjoy, though this is a bit of a dark chapter – long one though, eh? Eh? Gosh it's harder to write from Jaune's PoV – I realise in the series he is a bit more moronic than this, but let me have my slightly less crappy Jaune plz.**

* * *

><p>Chapter 6.<p>

* * *

><p>Jaune hit the ground feet first, knees bending to absorb the blow as his aura briefly flared to prevent any damage. His shield was held in front of him while Crocea Mors was held behind ready to strike. Idly he thought of how much use this training could have been when he was first tossed into the Emerald Forest. A few more loud thuds behind him told him that his team and RWBY had landed as well. After a few tense moments of glancing around he let the shield drop and sheathed his sword.<p>

Well that was anticlimactic. Not a bad thing given the circumstances though. Seeing some of the others sheathing their own weapons Jaune took a moment to look up at the bullhead which was now turning above them to head back to whatever base it came from. Their only method of escape was abandoning them.

_Welp. Time to be the hero._

The real irony was that despite its four tonne mass and weapon armament, they were probably safer from the Grimm than it was. A nevermore the size of the one they had fought in initiation would probably have no trouble with it. Lucky then, that the skies were clear of any avian Grimm.

"Brr. Sure is cold here." Yang offered from nearby as she rubbed her bare arms and hopped on her feet to regain some heat. Jaune for a moment thought about commenting on her choice of clothing but wisely held the urge back - it would probably insult everyone bar Ren, and that was a dangerous move with these girls.

"We're well above sea level, I guess the air is a little thinner up here too." Pyrrha returned as she too seemed to roll her shoulders and pull her arms a little closer to her sides. It was times like this that Jaune wondered exactly why none of them wore functional clothing like jeans and a hoodie. Call it boring if you like, but it was cheap and warm. Grimm blood washed out of it easily too, unlike Ren's white trousers.

"So this is Elgard." Blake sighed, drawing their attention to the site they had all been unconsciously trying to avoid. Calling it a city was misleading. Elgard was little more than a village outpost, maybe just sixty different buildings with a perimeter wall. One that appeared to have done little to prevent the Grimm this time.

"Was." Jaune mumbled quietly to himself. Somehow his image of a ruined village had been more extreme. He'd expected fires, blood, dead bodies… there were none of those things. Though there was clear evidence of fire damage in the blackened timbers of what remained of the shells of houses, it was all covered in a small layer of dust and snow. The only real movement in the area was the occasional flapping of tattered pieces of cloth, that would cling doggedly to walls or posts as the wind caught the material.

From where they were standing no bodies could be seen, though there were occasional slightly discoloured pieces of Earth. Nothing more than patches that looked a darker version of mud, but that he was sure was where people and Grimm had bled out. It wasn't hard to imagine what had happened to the bodies that might have laid there. Food for the Grimm, or the carrion.

As the eight of them slowly walked through the open gates Jaune let his eyes wander left and right across the remaining buildings. There seemed to be very few that had retained more than a single storey, and even in those cases it was often nothing more than tall supporting pillars of wood or stone, the occasional metre or so of wooden flooring that looked to be almost floating. Rocks and dirt crunched under their heels as they came to a stop just inside the walls.

"Somehow I expected there would be some Grimm to welcome us." Weiss spoke from nearby. He thought of something to say in response, something that might make the situation less tense, or that might sound profound. Pyrrha beat him to it, though her comment was infinitely more dark.

"Predators don't stay where there is no prey."

Well… if that wasn't ominous. Made sense though, he thought to himself as the others expressed their disgust. If you thought of Grimm as little more than normal animals, just larger and scarier, then you could to a degree understand why they did things. But how many Grimm would there need to be, to honestly consider an entire village to be nothing more than a single meal? It wasn't a sustainable food source if you killed everything… That was why the farmer wouldn't just kill all the chickens for their meat, even if he would make more money at market.

"What's the plan then?" Yang cut in, making Jaune flinch at the sudden thought. He had no idea what to do, and he was the leader, right?

"it'll be dark in a few hours." Ren cut in. "We'll only end up missing evidence in the dark, and these buildings look unsafe. We should find somewhere to camp first, and begin our search tomorrow." Thankfully he could trust Ren to offer insight. Sometimes Jaune thought he might have been better suited for the position of team leader.

"Right then!" Ruby interrupted quickly. "We'll split up with our partners and look for a sturdy building we can camp in."

Jaune nodded in agreement as everyone broke up into their usual pairs. Pyrrha gave him her usual smile as she walked over to him, and he did his best to smile back. Hard to imagine a good reason to smile in a situation like this, but she did always seem to have a smile, or kind words, for him. He had always just assumed it was her supportive nature, almost mothering in some cases. If Ren could be the brains of team JNPR, then it would be Pyrrha who was their emotional support. Nora brought the laughter - and madness.

"You ready to go house hunting partner?" He asked as he looked down at his scroll that showed a map of the village. He missed the resulting blush on her face as she shook herself.

"You were looking at that map on the way here, do you already have somewhere in mind?" She made him sound so prepared when she put it like that, when the simple truth was that he had sought to distract his body from his travel sickness by immersing himself in looking at the images from Elgard that had been transferred to their scrolls. Still, there had been one feature that had stood out to him.

"The town had-has a single watchtower near the west wall." He mumbled as he used his finger to push his way through the images until he found the one he was looking for. "It's the tallest building in Elgard and since it's a military building I figured it might be stronger."

"That sounds like a good idea." Pyrrha agreed as she leaned over his shoulder to look at the image. It certainly looked like a strong structure, with a stone rock base reaching up to wooden walls. If the flames had been spread across the grounds then it might not have reached up the stone to reach the wood.

The two of them headed off along the interior of the wall, a quick look at the compass built into his scroll giving him the general direction. It was strange to think that the walls themselves were in mostly good condition, although there clearly were signs of scorched wood. The Grimm hadn't broken through the wall it seemed… did that perhaps mean it wasn't large Grimm like deathstalkers? Or was it a sign of something worse… that the walls had been no protection versus Grimm who could fly?

It was the interior buildings themselves who looked to have really suffered. There was a dark sort of amusement that ran through him as he looked at the sole remaining aspect that seemed to remain upright in all the ruined buildings – if the houses had a fireplace and a chimney, then those always seemed to stand, darkened by fire but whole. It looked as though most of the buildings had their construction based in wood. Were there any Grimm that breathed fire? He didn't know.

"I think the tower's a bust." Pyrrha spoke from next to him as the two came to a stop. Though they were nowhere near the tower, they could see the ruined building beyond the houses in front of them. Nothing more than a stone base with broken and destroyed houses beside it.

"I guess the tower was too heavy." Jaune sighed aloud. If the flames had weakened the supports then it would have collapsed with much greater force than most of the other houses. It was a long shot he guessed, though it would have paid off if they'd been lucky.

"Let's hope the others have more luck than us." Pyrrha shrugged as she nudged his shoulder with her own to cheer him up. Offering a nudge back he decided to push his way through a half destroyed door frame into a broken down house beside them. "Jaune?"

"We're not going to find a place to stay." He replied back with a shrug as he carefully looked inside. There was no roof or beams remaining of the house, and from the shell inside he could see the sky. So there was no risk of anything falling on him. "So we might as well see if we can find any of that evidence we were sent for."

"You're right I guess."

The two of them spread out the ruined interior. Jaune feeling very much out of his depth as he looked around. Though they were called Hunters, they didn't really have any classes on tracking or detective work, so he wasn't sure what to actually look for. Instead he looked for any sign of what might have happened to the occupants. The floor was covered in soot and ashes, but there were still no bodies remaining – though given the mess the floor could have been covered in blood and he wouldn't know.

As he knelt down and pushed over some broken wood he found a few blackened pieces of metal on the floor, picking one up he realised it was little more than a long knife – probably used in the kitchen for cutting food. Perhaps at the end it had been used for a more desperate purpose. Letting it fall to the floor he looked for anything else that might help but came up blank. How the hell was he supposed to find anything when a fire had pretty much destroyed any evidence?

"Here, I've found something." Pyrrha called from the doorway, bringing him over even as he shook his head in complete lack of surprise that his talented partner had managed to find something without any difficulty. Just another area he was deficient in it seemed. Bending over to look at where she indicated Jaune could just about make out a few tufts of dark hair that seemed to be twisted on a broken hinge on the standing doorframe.

"Fur?" He commented loudly as he looked at it. "So we're looking at a Beowolf or an Ursa?" Those were the only two that came to his mind. Boarbatusks seemed to be mostly skin from what he'd seen in that lesson of Port's, and Nevermores obviously had feathers.

"Not an ursa. A Beowolf." Pyrrha corrected with a shrug. Jaune fixed her with a confused look until she elaborated. "Well… the door frame is still standing, an Ursa wouldn't have fit through. A smaller Beowolf could have though."

Jaune nodded even as he cursed himself in his mind for not having realised such an obvious fact. Of course it wasn't a bloody Ursa. But then why would a Beowolf use a door? _No Jaune… don't ask. Think! You can do this…_ Beowolves were strong… they wouldn't have had much trouble breaking down wooden walls given a bit of an effort and some time. Was that the reason? Time?

_Animals take the path of least resistance… do Grimm act the same?_ So they would have chosen the door or the windows… and those were too small of course. Why break through the wall when the door was weaker – but then how did they know the door was weaker? _Unless they had seen the people running in the door…_ In his mind he could imagine the scene. A man shouting at the door as his wife rushed inside, him slamming it behind her. The Beowolf seeing its prey wouldn't have even thought about anything other than killing them… battering on the door as it slowly gave way until it got inside and –

"Jaune!"

The voice broke into his lost thoughts as he shook his head and brought himself back to reality. Pyrrha looked so worried as she watched him, it probably wasn't hard for her to realise what he was thinking about.

"Sorry Pyrrha." He apologised with a guilty laugh. Her shoulders loosened at his laugh and she offered him her usual smile. "So we're looking at a pack of Beowolves I guess. Or we won't know for sure unless the others find some evidence too."

"Indeed. We should still investigate tomorrow. As partners again I think." He nodded in response, wondering to himself why she felt the need to add that on the end about them teaming up again. Who else was he going to wander around the ruined town with? Weiss? Or was it because she wanted to look after him still, and didn't want him to feel embarrassed if any of the others saw how unsure he was at looking for tracks. He wasn't sure whether to feel offended or subtly pleased at the thought.

"Sure." He offered simply as the two of them descended the few short steps from the ruined house to the ground outside. There will still light in the sky, and the sun would be up for a few more hours but it was starting to get a little colder. And if he could feel it then he didn't want to imagine how cold the girls might be.

A snuffling noise caused the two of them to draw weapons and leap out into the open ground. Jaune strained his ears as he tried to locate the direction of the noise. The snuffling, snorting sound was the clear ragged breathing of a large creature. Jaune shared a glance with his partner who looked equally unwilling to slip between the weakened buildings in search of the Grimm. While normally fighting Grimm in an enclosed space could be an advantage, that wasn't going to be the case when the walls could collapse on them at any moment.

Pyrrha took the decision out of his hands as she raised her shield and rapped her spear against the edge three times. Though she didn't strike it as hard as she could have, the noise was still more than audible to anyone who might in the area.

The snuffling stopped as the creature instantly recognised their position. Jaune bent his legs slightly in preparation to hold his ground, knowing that the cover they had around them was brittle enough for a Beowolf to break through in a moment's notice.

"Rarghh!" The growl sounded from behind him as he span on the spot but was beaten to it by Pyrrha. The champion surging away from him to engage the single target who had revealed itself. Jaune sighed as he waited, knowing better than to distract her in a fight she could easily win on her own. True to form a quick block and a thrust pierced the Grimm's throat and had it dying softly on the floor.

Jaune sheathed his sword while offering a quick smile to her despite feeling a little sad that he had not been able to test his own skills after all his recent training. Their attention was quickly drawn to vibrating coming from Jaune's pocket, as he fumbled with his scroll. It had been a casual decision to turn his music off, but if there were Grimm around then he was thankful for it.

"Jaune here." The image on the front showed the slightly bemused face of Lie Ren. An image Jaune had taken to amuse himself when the Eastern gunman had pulled a really weird face.

"We've found a good place to set up camp. If you head towards the centre of town, the Town Hall building is pretty much in one piece."

"The fire hasn't damaged it?" He asked with some surprise. The building had been so large in the pictures that Jaune had fully expected it to have been under extreme pressure.

"The upper floors are lost, but some of the central rooms have steel and stone foundations. We've found a room basically covered in concrete, so there won't be any danger."

"Well. Looks like we're off then." Jaune commented to Pyrrha as he ended the call. Despite it being a little childish he couldn't help but admit that he was proud it was his team who had found a place for them to stay first.

* * *

><p>Jaune and Pyrrha met up with Ruby and Weiss outside the Town Hall. The latter pair having apparently gone to look at some food stores as potential housing. Though that obviously hadn't worked out, they hadn't been attacked by any Grimm in that area.<p>

"We've not been able to find any survivors either." Ruby complained as the quartet entered the main building. Somehow that didn't surprise him as he thought it should. It had been almost two days now since the distress calls had been sent, and he didn't expect to find any survivors.

Ruby and Weiss slipped through the destroyed half of the main doors to the hall, while Jaune placed his hand on the second to open it for himself and Pyrrha. The door gave way under his hand however, falling ominously inwards and crashing into the floor with a loud echoing slam. Jaune winced at the noise, as well as the looks everyone was giving him.

"Idiot Arc!" Weiss hissed as she turned on him. "Why not scream out as well to alert every Grimm to us!"

He wanted to defend himself. To say it was an accident and that he hadn't meant to draw attention to them. But instead he just let his shoulders slump. They could have passed through the open door in single file… he should have known better than to trust any of the damaged furniture. He was always making these small mistakes, despite that he didn't intend to.

"Don't worry Jaune. She's just upset at the town." Ruby comforted to him as Weiss stormed off in a huff, dragging Pyrrha with her. Jaune forced out a smile as he nodded his head towards Ruby. He knew that the girl was doing her best to comfort him because she considered him to be her friend. But that didn't mean that she was right to make that effort. Even she, a fifteen year old girl, didn't make as many mistakes as he did.

Not that he would give up, of course. He would just have to learn from every mistake he made so that he wouldn't ever do them again. That way he could slowly become the hero necessary to save people.

Together the two leaders followed their scrolls which were homing in on Ren's, through a few broken down doors and into rubble strewn rooms. Eventually it led them to a stone wall with a solid wooden door standing in the middle. A metal plaque on the door held the words "Records Room."

Pushing the door open and letting Ruby enter ahead of him with a smile, Jaune let his eyes scan over the room. Little wonder the door had remained in one piece, he thought as it slammed closed behind him. It was built of heavy wood and probably had some metal inside of it as well to act as a fire door. Inside the room all the others had already gathered, and Yang was already tipping over some heavy metal filing cabinets and arranging them in a circle like seating.

"We're making a camp fire inside?" Jaune couldn't help but ask as he looked at the arrangement of cabinets that reminded him of logs around a campfire. True to that image Blake was collecting paper from the drawers and piling it up as kindling within a removed metal drawer itself.

"I doubt there's any heating here Vomit-boy." Yang teased as she flopped down with a dull clang on top of one of the cabinets. A twisted grimace later and she pulled out her sleeping bag to use as a cushion for her new seat.

"You might want to do something about that then." Jaune offered with a small smirk as he pointed up at a small white plastic attachment to the ceiling, drawing all their eyes upwards. Part of him wanted to rub it in that they were going to set off the fire alarm and draw every single Grimm in the village to them, but he held it back.

"Ugh… damn it." Yang grunted. "Hey Rubes use your flyswatter to deal with that will you?"

Jaune ignored Ruby defending her weapon and ultimately trying to scythe a small white disk off the ceiling, to kneel down by Blake who was still readying the fire. Amber eyes turned to regard him for a brief moment before she nodded and returned to her task.

"We came across a Beowolf earlier." He offered simply, ignoring her sudden eyes on him as she looked him up and down. He liked to think it was concern she was showing, but part of him clung to the idea that she was just surprised he was in one piece still. "I don't suppose you and Yang found anything useful out?"

"Beowolf tracks on our end." Her eyes narrowed as she seemed to think for a moment. "And no bodies anywhere… what happened to them all?"

Jaune sighed as he looked around the two of them. Everyone seemed to be focused on Ruby who was balancing atop Yang's shoulders and trying to accurately use her scythe one handed to pry the device loose. Nora was cheering her on while the others watched in amused silence.

"I guess they ate them all. Why waste the food." He answered once he was sure no one was going to hear them. There was no point to drag anyone else into this morbid talk.

"Every single person?" A fine eyebrow arched upwards as she asked this, and for a moment Jaune could only admire how expressive Blake's expressions could be. "How many Beowolves would there have to be, to class over five hundred people as a single meal?"

"I know…" And now that he thought of it; that offered a particularly grim picture as well. "Enough that they could overrun the town, devour everyone – including their own dead, and move on within the sixteen hours it took the military to respond…"

What did that even mean? Hundreds, thousands? Or just an incredibly hungry and murderous few? It was so hard to understand from their perspective. To them Beowolves were little more than a nuisance… dangerous in large numbers, but individually considered a training warm-up.

But to these people? A Beowolf would have been a towering creature, faster and stronger than they could ever imagine, with a hunger that could only be sated with death. How many people here could even have fought against them? How many people had their auras unlocked… And did that even matter?

Aura just protected you from harm… what use was that if you weren't trained to fight? It would take a Beowolf twice as long to kill you, but you would still die an agonising death – just a prolonged one.

Still. There was nothing they could do about that now. And though the sentiment was a harsh one it was undeniably true. They would need to find whatever information they could, so that the Hunters could take steps to stop this happening to anyone else. In that regard they were on a time limit too.

"Jaune, do you have a match?" The question from Blake dragged him back out from his thoughts as he met her eyes looking up into his. A match? Quickly resisting the urge to say he didn't smoke, he instead rummaged around in his pack. He'd always been a bit of a packrat, so it wasn't completely inconceivable that he might-

"Hey! I've got a lighter." He cheered quietly as he drew the simple plastic item from his pack. Not that he remembered storing it in there, but he had everything from first aid supplies to basic camping equipment, so it wasn't hard to imagine him having stuffed it in for convenience sake. Blake smiled as she took it and started to set papers alight to get the fire going. And for a moment he felt incredibly pleased at having been of use.

"Well I guess we've mastered fire." She quipped sarcastically as the two of them stood to watch papers darken and fold in on themselves as they caught light.

"Yeah, we're big independent hunters now, oo-rah." Jaune drawled back, surprising himself as Blake let out a short giggle before catching herself. Despite himself a tiny self-satisfied grin worked its way onto his lips. "Now we just need someone to master cooking."

"I can cook actually." A voice spoke from directly behind him, causing him to jump slightly in surprise as he span around to see his own partner scant inches away from him. Gods, he hadn't realised she was so close! How long had she just been stood there watching them!?

"That would be appreciated." Blake accepted, no doubt having seen her approach but chosen not to warn him. So much for new besties!

"I'll need some fresh water though… actually we should really have found a source before this."

"Don't the taps work?" It had only been a maximum of twenty hours since the town went down, surely the water wouldn't have come to a stop yet? Actually come to think of it… "Shouldn't we have access to electricity too?"

"Vale lost contact with the village. The Grimm probably damaged the power lines." Pyrrha replied with a sigh, but he shook his head quickly.

"No. No. Villages like this, on the border. There's so much risk that they wouldn't just not have some kind of emergency power to call for help." He could see the light of understanding coming to their eyes as Blake nodded in agreement. "There should be a backup generator somewhere… and why not in the main Town Hall?"

"Time for an adventure then?" Yang asked with a grin as she sidled up to the three of them and threw an arm around Blake and his own shoulders.

Pyrrha seemed to hesitate at the idea as she looked at him.

"I have to stay and tend the fire… I'd feel safer if you didn't go out alone Jaune." A few months ago he might have become offended at the idea, but instead he nodded his head and looked at Ren. The boy in question met his eyes for a few seconds before sighing the sigh of the damned and climbing to his feet.

"That's that then." Yang cheered. "We'll go look for fresh water and a generator and be back in a jiffy."

"Kaaaay." Ruby sang as the four of them shuffled out of the warming room and back into the cool night air. Beside him Ren seemed to shrug once as if giving up before resting his hands on his waist.

"So yeah…" Jaune began as he rubbed the back of his head. "If I were a generator where would I hide."

"Sucks to be you. We just need to find a toilet!" Yang teased as he and Ren shared a look.

"Actually I believe it would be safer if we all travelled together." The eastern boy advised in a neutral voice. "We have no idea if the Grimm will be more active as the night falls."

"I'm pretty sure you're just saying that because you don't want to be wandering around lost alone."

"Misery loves company." Jaune interrupted with a grin. "And as the only leader here I can make it an order if I need to."

"I don't think I have to listen to you." The other blonde laughed back with one hand on her hip, only to be interrupted as Blake let out a sigh.

"Give it up Yang. Ruby would be furious if we came back without them."

"Jealous, Blake?" Yang quipped as she wiggled her eyebrows at the shorter girl. Blake in return just looked vaguely confused and looked at Jaune with a raised eyebrow. Jaune couldn't help but shrug back. Yang's humour could be pretty impenetrable at times, his usual S.O.P was just to assume she was saying something at his expenditure. Then ignore it.

The two of them turned to look at Ren, who just shook his head with a sigh.

"Okay you guys all suck _so_ hard. Fiiiiiine! We'll all go!" The blonde threw her arms up in the air as she stormed off down one corridor. The others quickly jogging up to catch her.

"Yang do you even know where you're going?" He gasped out as she set a blistering pace down the corridors.

"Well duh, generator will be in the basement. Not going to be anywhere a storm could hit it, is it?" Okay well yeah sure that made sense when you thought about it. But still…

"And you know where the basement is?"

"Just as much an idea as you vomit-boy." She laughed back. That was probably true actually… none of them had any idea where to go so why not let Yang lead? At least then she can take the blame if they got lost.

"Chances are any entrance to the basement, if it was used for utilities, would be visible from the main entrance." Ren cut in. "After all, if the electricity was to go out in an emergency then you would want the people at the main reception to be able to activate it quickly."

"Makes sense." Blake agreed as the four of them came to a halt in the round open entrance hall of the building. Though once again the sky was visible through the broken and shattered second floor, there was no denying the ornate entranceway and open space of the hall.

"I guess we spread out and check the doors then." Jaune muttered as he walked towards the main reception desk. "Make sure to not go out of sight of everyone else though."

The others didn't argue but spread out to look at the nearby doors and rooms. There was a loud bang as the door Yang tried to enter fell in on itself and Jaune couldn't help but smile in amusement at her quiet cursing. Wasn't just him he guessed. This entire building was a mess.

The first room he entered appeared to be an office. A few overturned desks scarred with damage from fire. Again the floor was covered in a thick layer of ash and dust and it was difficult to make out any details, but it clearly wasn't what he was looking for.

In the end it was Ren who found what they were looking for and called them over. Little more than a hole in the wall with chipped and smashed walls around it. Even to Jaune it was clear that something had forced its way down here. Something that wasn't meant to fit.

"I smell blood." Blake whispered nervously, gripping her weapon tightly while her nose scrunched up slightly in distaste. Jaune sniffed loudly but couldn't make out anything over the ever-present smell of burnt wood and ash. Still, the darkness was ominous enough that he didn't dare doubt her.

"I'll go first with my shield in front." Jaune ordered with a sigh. Surely there couldn't be any living Grimm in the basement of a building that had been on fire, but it wasn't worth the risk. "Ren you go second with your guns ready to shoot over me." Ren nodded as he released his two weapons from his sleeves. In an enclosed corridor Crocea Mors would be pretty limited, but so would any Grimm. He just had to block a few strikes while Ren would use the height from the staircase to fill it full of holes.

"We'll provide moral support." Yang laughed ignoring the elbow that Blake dug into her side. Despite the teasing Jaune knew they would be coming in after him and were just as likely to get involved if there was any danger.

_Into the breach we go…_ He thought to himself morbidly as he began the descent with his shield held firmly in front of himself. It was trickier than he had expected since if he needed to block he would be doing it on un-even footing. As such he needed to sidestep his way into the dark, with Ren holding the scroll on his torch out alongside stormflower – providing a strong if limited source of illumination.

As they continued the descent Jaune strained his ears and senses for any sound of movement or heavy breathing but was rewarded with silence. As his booted feet evened out as they reached level ground he lowered his shield and let out a short breath.

"The smell is stronger." Blake whispered again as she seemed to step closer to them unconsciously. Jaune felt an uncomfortable urge to comfort her but didn't know how. A woman like Blake wouldn't appreciate an arm around the shoulder, and they were still in a dangerous situation. Instead he pushed the desire away and activated his own scroll, selecting the torch and illuminating the darkness in one direction.

What he saw made his eyes widen in horror.

Blood everywhere. In splotches covering the floor, with long slashes of darkened red across the walls and even some stains on the ceiling itself. The small corner he had illuminated must have contained the lifeblood of at least six or eight people.

A massacre.

"Shit…" Yang whispered from nearby in a choked voice. Jaune couldn't help but agree. There were no exclamations of horror or pain, no "oh Gods" or similar. They all just stood in silence as they looked at the stains.

Another torch flickered on as Blake fired her own beam of light in another direction, with the same results. Tattered cloth, blood and broken pieces of wood. Everything was dried into the concrete itself, and still there was not a single sign of a body.

Ren flared his own torch to no different story. Jaune almost wanted to laugh in hysterical panic as he felt the urge of his own to illuminate more of the basement. As though it would change anything. The basement had been the scene of a slaughter, and the Grimm had fed well.

"I guess we know what happened to the residents…" Blake sighed as she was the first to step away from the group and begin shining the torch around, looking for the generator. Jaune was the last to move himself, his torch still casting ominous light on the splashed blood.

Yeah, he guessed they did know. No doubt they'd fled to the basement to hold off the Grimm. With how thin the staircase was a single hunter could probably hold the breach for hours. But once he fell? Everyone hiding here would have become trapped with the Grimm, and could do nothing but wait to die. Watching other people being killed and eaten while they waited their turn...

Before he knew what he was doing he was down on one knee, his hand sifting through some pieces of loose material, unheeding of the dried blood which flaked away at his touch. In his hand was what was probably the only whole body in the town. A tiny teddy bear, with wiry fur and a small smile made out of sewn string.

He turned it around in his hands, inspecting it. Despite all the evil around them it didn't have any stains on its fur, and looked to have been shielded from any blood. He could easily imagine how that could have happened. Little hands would have gripped it to their chest for comfort at the end, unconsciously shielding it from harm.

He hoped it had given some small comfort to its owner.

"Jaune… you should put it down." A voice whispered from next to him, drawing him from his morbid thoughts. His eyes trailed up the black legs until his gaze met the amber eyes of Blake. She didn't look as badly affected as he, or Yang, had. She looked tired and disappointed, and upset. But there was no shock or unbelieving horror in her gaze.

"They didn't deserve this." Jaune could only whisper back, not wanting to draw the others into the conversation.

"No one does." Was all she said back as she shrugged one shoulder painfully. "But you don't deserve to feel guilty for what happened. We can feel sorry for them, but this wasn't our fault."

"Then whose fault is it Blake? The people here? The military? It's our responsibility to protect people from the Grimm!" He hissed the words out as he climbed back to his full height and stared at her. His anger evaporated in an instant when she stepped back as if in fear, and a pain shot through his chest. "Blake, no-I'm sorry-" She quietened him by placing a finger against his lips before he could continue.

"Don't. It's fine. We're all angry we couldn't do anything." She gave him a weak smile as she took her finger away and he tried to smile back, he did try. She was right in what she said, and there was no point getting angry at each other over it.

"I guess so. I am sorry for snapping at you though. I guess I just needed to vent some frustration, but … yeah, well… sorry."

"Don't worry about it. We should finish up here and leave though." And that was definitely something he could get on board with as the two joined their final pair in scouring the basement for a generator.

"Guys, I found it!" Yang called out from one corner of the room, causing them all to jog over to look at what was honestly a battered old machine. "It's already on though…"

"Looks like it's the fuses that flicked off." Ren muttered as he tried to switch some back on, only to have them automatically flip down again. "Some fuses are still broken, it's tripping the system."

"Yeah well we are missing an entire second floor you know?" Yang gritted back in anger, no doubt the scenes playing on her mind as well. Her eyes flashed red in impatience as she punched the wall angrily.

"Calm down." Jaune ordered with a firmer look than he was used to giving. To his surprise Yang followed his orders, though her eyes remained red. "Ren just see if you can get the mains back on. We only need to be able to have some of the sockets working. Then we can get out of here."

"Okay…" A green arm disappeared inside the fuse box as Ren struggled with the controls, his other pointing his torch at the controls to see them better. "I think that's it. Can't tell from here though."

"Let's just get the Hell out of here." Yang urged as she span on the spot and ran towards the stairs. "If that didn't fix them we're not gonna be able to. But I'm _not_ staying here any longer!" Blake didn't bother responding but followed her partner quickly up the stairs as Ren and Jaune shared a look before jogging after them.

Stepping back into the light of the moonlit sky was more of a relief than he had expected. The cold night air and stiff breeze pushing fresh air into his nostrils and clearing away the pungent scent of death from below. Blake was rubbing her nose on her knees, while her blonde partner was leaning against a wall with her head against the concrete, her face looking into the sky.

Ren staggered a few paces beyond them before dropping down to cross his legs and lean back. Jaune placed one hand on the wall as he shook his head to dispel any lingering scent. That had been something he'd kind of always known they might face in their career, but he hadn't expected to ever see it this early. And this probably wasn't even the worst it could have been, was it? The Grimm, curse those monsters, had devoured all the bodies – unwilling to waste the meat. He wasn't sure if he would have been able to take seeing the faces of children down there.

"We…" He tried, before taking a deep breath and continuing. "We don't tell the others about this. That's an order. We found the generator, that's all that happened."

"You want to keep it secret from the others?" Blake asked with a surprised look.

"Maybe they'll see things this bad one day." He replied back as he stared first into her eyes, then Yang's. "But right now I don't think there's any point putting Ruby through this." Yang's eyes widened as she looked away in thought. "I don't want to ruin Pyrrha's mood either." His eyes fell on Ren at last. "And do you want Nora to know?"

"No." Ren responded instantly as the green gunman climbed to his feet and started to dust down his clothing. "No I do not."

"Agreed." Yang echoed as she offered him a weak smile and a nod. "I just want to go home to be honest… but I'll settle for a meal and sleep."

To that they could all agree.

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><p>Blake indulged in her usual hobby once they had returned to the main group with some buckets of fresh water. They'd managed to bring their emotions back down to manageable levels so the others would not become too suspicious. Thankfully if they had noticed any distress they had written it off as being homesick, or just upset at seeing a ruined town.<p>

From where she currently lay on her bedroll she watched Yang pampering Ruby before bedtime, forcing the smaller girl to sit on her lap, even as Ruby squirmed in embarrassment at the teasing of her older sister. To the others it must have looked like the usual Yang-antics, but she could see the desperate comfort the blonde took in holding her sister. She closed her eyes to give the blonde some privacy even as she thought on the others.

Ren had seemed as calm and collected as ever, but had shown an unusual amount of patience listening to Nora talk about some dream she had the previous night, even going so far as to promise to buy her some expensive pancakes when they returned to Beacon, just to hear her squeal in joy. To him it seemed the normalcy, well relative normalcy, or Nora talking his ear off provided comfort. Because if they could just sit there and talk and laugh – then nothing was wrong, right?

And then there was Jaune, and herself, she guessed. But she had come to accept this type of cruelty long ago. Pyrrha had been quick to welcome her teammate, and not-so-secret crush back, and yet she couldn't offer him any comfort. Because he wanted to protect her from the misery they had found, and wouldn't admit he was in pain.

And she wouldn't be the one to break his order, because she could respect it.

But that left him with no one to take comfort in himself, because he wanted to be the emotional rock for his team. Much like Yang and her were willing to be for theirs.

She knew what she wanted to do. She wanted to get up and walk over to where he was laying and shake his shoulder, lean down and say he was doing the right thing. Maybe talk about that book they had read together and point out that sometimes heroes didn't get thanked or rewarded for the sacrifices they made for others. But then assure him that between them, they knew what they had done, and could be proud of it.

But she couldn't.

They were all getting ready to sleep, and while she wasn't one to normally be cowed by being watched by others, doing that would be so out of character – so unusual and unexpected for her… that everyone would watch and wonder what they were doing.

The embarrassment didn't faze her. Yang already seemed determined to suggest she was in some form of illicit affair with him. But she couldn't raise suspicions like that, or they might ask what was bothering Jaune – and ruin the entire effort.

But she could make a promise to herself. Yang could find comfort in Ruby, and Ren in Nora. But he didn't have anyone he could talk to about this. And sure, she wasn't that good at comfort… but she could talk to him and let him vent his frustrations and thoughts. That was one thing she could do to repay him for the second sacrifice he had made in the past weeks.

For now though all she could do was watch sadly as he lay still, too tense to possibly be asleep as he no doubt thought on what had happened less than six metres beneath where they slept.

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><p><strong>Well there we go, dark. I have no problem with writing about bodies by the way so don't worry. There is a good reason the bodies were all gone (eaten) – not just me trying censor gore because I am a delicate man or something… <strong>

**I also tried to show the insecurities Jaune has here. He sees Pyrrha as the talented one, Ren as the strategist and Nora as the spirit of the team, and doesn't see how he fits in. But I see him as the emotional rock that keeps JNPR anchored. And I could totally see him shouldering the burden to save them pain.**

**Also I just couldn't write Jaune as a bumbling moron in his OWN thoughts… Also I wanted to have him be "slightly" more confident in combat than he was vs that ursa at the end of series 2. I realise he defeated it, but the high pitched "oh you're first" and panicked slashing? Come on, Pyrrha has been training him for ages – he knows more than "frantic slashing."**


	8. Chapter 8

**Well here we go. A week or so gone, and another chapter out. Thanks to everyone again for their reviews, and a particular mention to "Patriot of USA" who wrote one of those reviews that has the writer thinking "Yeah, this sounds better than what I actually had planned…. STEAL IT! Claim it as my own, mwahahahaha!" – Seriously, that was quite poetic what you wrote.**

**Also a side note – Super Saiyan Cyndaquil has agreed to help BETA this, and if you don't recognise the name it's either because you're insane and haven't read the awesome fic "Auburn" or you just read the fics and don't look at author names – in which case: "Eh, I can understand that."**

**On to the chapter then, as always loving your reviews and comments, I do take suggestions on board and listen to what everyone says, as it does help me out.**

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><p><em><strong>P.S. I have felt the hankering to make a second story (damn me) and have written two ideas out on my profile. I would love if people might offer their thoughts on the ideas, either in a review or a PM to me. On which they might prefer. I will NOT be giving up, or slowing down, on this one though!<strong>_

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><p><strong>Beta: Super Saiyan Cyndaquil<strong>

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><p>Chapter 7<p>

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><p>It was perhaps the darkest and dingiest morning Blake had even awoken to. The cramped interior of the records room was cold and quiet, while the only light available came from a tiny window near the ceiling, and the dull illumination from Ruby's scroll. It was hard to wake up properly with the room so dark, and she couldn't help but let out a long yawn of complaint. A sharp twinge of pain in her neck informed her that her sleep hadn't been as restful as she would have liked either.<p>

Her partner Yang didn't look any better, the taller blonde rotating her head from side to side and wincing every time a quiet pop or crack of bone sounded. The only one who even looked slightly rested was Ruby, who seemed to have the enviable ability to find any surface comfortable.

Blake's shoulders rose dramatically before dropping as an explosive sigh escaped her lips. What she wouldn't give to be back in their dorm room at Beacon – with her comfortable bed and beloved pillow.

_Alas for the simpler life…_ she mused to herself as her lidded amber eyes watched Ruby's scroll coming to life as a connection was established. The others gathered loosely around the young leader as the pale face of a girl with sunglasses appeared on the screen. Though Blake had never met her, she recognised the face as being Velvet's team leader – Coco.

"Hello there." The girl drawled in greeting. "I guess you're my little team out at Elgard?" Blake rolled her eyes wondering if the woman was going to be another Yang from the way she spoke.

"Er… sure?" Ruby offered, more as a question than a statement while Yang laughed. "I mean, yeah we are!"

"Okay then. What's up?"

"Well we're reporting in I guess." Ruby looked to them all for some support as they all shrugged. Perhaps the only other person who could help her, her fellow leader Jaune, was still struggling to pack his bedroll away.

"Okay, what have you found out?"

"Well the village is pretty much destroyed… we made camp in the town hall which was somewhat secure. The walls are still standing which is a bit weird. We're not sure what caused the fire either, since nearly every building is burned down…"

"Is that all you've been able to find out?" The woman seemed a little bemused at the lack of information, and internally Blake cringed. She knew they should have waited until they had more information before reporting in. Typical Weiss and her rule-abiding nature had won Ruby over though.

"Umm… we were able to find Beowolf fur, and two of our group were attacked by a lone Beowolf. We don't think there are any other Grimm that were here."

"Okay that's good. I can't really disclose what information we've been getting from the other groups but this is about what we expected. If you can continue searching the area today then we can see about getting you an evac tomorrow morning back to Beacon." Everyone seemed to perk up at the idea of that, and Blake could agree with the sentiment. They'd been here barely a full day, and already she was missing the relative comfort and safety of their school.

"Can you tell us what you lot have been doing then?" Yang interrupted before the call could end, catching the girl's attention as Ruby tilted the scroll so the two could look at one another. The girl seemed to lean forward, letting her glasses slide down her nose as she inspected them.

"Nothing too hot really. We're trying to find the main group but have mostly been hunting down fragments and dispatching them. It's not as glorious as it sounds, trust me." Coco seemed to sigh at the end of that as she shook her head as if in lamentation. "Really, fighting in this mud in heels is killer."

A part of Blake wanted to ask why she wore heels then, but the hypocrisy of the statement held her back. And really, wasn't all their clothing more than a little strange?

"Anyway, we're going to have to hustle. Catch you guys tomorrow I guess."

"Tell Velvet we said hi!" Yang called as the scroll went dead. There was a moment of silence in the cramped room before each of them started milling around to gather their equipment. Blake expected that they would sleep in the same place, but constant lessons from Oobleck had taught them the importance of packing up after themselves. History showed time and time again that you couldn't always expect your camp from the previous night to remain safe. Not when Grimm hunted negativity, not exactly something you could identify or hide evidence of…

"-fine. Please leave it." She caught from the edge of her vision as she looked towards Jaune and Pyrrha, who seemed to be having a quiet argument to one side. She was sure she had only been able to pick out his words due to her faunus heritage. It looked like she wasn't the only one who had noticed Jaune's difficulty sleeping, although it was perhaps easier to see in the morning with his eyes looking bloodshot, and his motions sluggish.

With Pyrrha's interest in Jaune it made sense that she would be concerned with him and want to help him feel better. The problem was that she had no idea what was causing his problem, and so was just _throwing_ concern at him. Blake could clearly see the boy's silent irritation growing, but he looked to be pushing it down so he didn't snap at his partner. Really, she would be better served trying to cheer him up with conversation, rather than try to force her nose into his own problems.

_But what do I know?_ She thought to herself in silent amusement. It wasn't as though she had ever dated before, and she wasn't all that interested now either. Either way, there was no way she was getting involved in the love life of Jaune and Pyrrha!

"Shall we be repeating yesterday's strategy?" Ren asked as he rose to his feet and began to pat down his white trousers of dust. It seemed in the time it had taken them all to pack away their belongings he had managed to do his own _and_ Nora's, who was currently eating some field rations with a smile on her face.

"That seems as good a plan as any." Weiss offered as she shouldered her own pack with a slight huff. Blake hesitated however. Last night she had promised to speak with Jaune and offer an ear if he wanted to talk about what they had seen – or anything really, so long as it took their minds off the slaughter they had witnessed. There was no way they could do that if they spent the day searching in pairs… and she definitely wouldn't get a chance when they were all gathered again at the end of the day…

"Maybe we should split up the teams." She spoke aloud without thinking, prompting complete silence as everyone turned to stare at her. _Okay… you would think I'd suggested we commit mass suicide…_ She'd never understood the idea of silence being deafening before, this was ridiculous.

"Why?" Ruby asked simply with her head cocked to one side.

_Yeah Blake, why?_ Her mind treacherously taunted while she calmly climbed to her feet and adjusted the straps of her backpack to give her time to think.

"Well our partners were chosen by random chance." She began, her mind whirling as it caught onto one idea and ran with it. "That's all well and good for combat, we've all learned to fight with one another. But this line of work isn't what we would usually do. So some of the pairs have too much combat focus, and might miss key evidence, because they're not as good at academics or investigatory work."

The irony of that statement was a little heavy, considering that the pairings were actually pretty balanced between brains and brawns. With Weiss, herself, Ren and Pyrrha being the academics, while the others were all quite strong in combat, if not their studies.

"I think we should stick to our teams." Pyrrha interrupted before anyone else could. She stepped forward, offering Blake a long look before continuing. "We're more used to working in our own pairs, and there might still be Grimm out there."

"Yeah I guess so." Ruby acquiesced with a hurried nod as Pyrrha looked at her.

Blake felt a surge of uncharacteristic anger at the redhead's move. Only her iron control stopping her lips from twisting into a snarl. Fine then! Let your vaunted partner suffer because you're too insecure to consider letting him work with someone else. A moment later and the anger subsided as she shrugged in defeat and stepped back, her normal expression fixed in place.

Pyrrha was letting her emotions control her judgement, a mistake she hadn't imagined a champion to make – but then again she was a champion of straight up fights, not leadership ability. And there had to be a reason she wasn't made the leader of JNPR. Blake would just need to approach Jaune later when Pyrrha wasn't around to constantly interfere. She knew he would be okay for a few days still… lost sleep aside, he wasn't going to go insane.

"Come on then Yang, I wanted to check the walls outside." Blake urged as she grabbed her partner by the arm and headed out of the room, doing her best to ignore the inquisitive looks watching her.

"Sure… perimeter then?" Said partner asked as she broke free of Blake's grip to walk beside her.

"The Beowolves had to come from somewhere." Blake explained as the two of them slipped out of the town hall building with a careful look both ways. No Grimm in sight thankfully. "If we can see what direction they came from, we might be able to accurately guess where they went. Or at least rule off one direction."

"Makes sense." The blonde brawler accepted as the two of them strolled towards the main gates. "So you wanna tell me what that was all about?"

Of course she had noticed, Blake sighed. The grass grew, the sun would shine, and Yang would always pick up on an opportunity to tease someone. Lately it felt like she was the butt of all of Yang's attention as well – which frankly _sucked_.

"Not really." Blake mumbled before sighing loudly as Yang bumped their shoulders together to show she wasn't going to let it go.

"Look… Blakey. I could see that little staring match with P-money. You can either tell me, or I'll figure it out myself." At this the blonde skipped in front of Blake and took her face in her hands, their eyes were close as Yang stared into her own. "And trust me Blake. I can make _all_ sorts of wrong conclusions."

"Almost as many will be made if anyone sees you holding me like this." Blake returned in an effort to distract her, but Yang simply smiled and said nothing.

"Ugh… if I tell you, will you keep it quiet?"

"Absolutely!" Yang crowed as she let go and crossed her arms under her breasts. Blake glared at her for a moment, wondering if talking would be the correct choice here. Yang was a tease and a gossip of the highest calibre. But she hadn't ever shared any secrets either to Blake, or about her… And Yang surely had all sorts of blackmail on Ruby, yet hadn't really ever shared any…

"Look Yang… just please don't draw stupid conclusions. I need you serious for this, okay?"

"I can do heart-to-heart Blake." Yang huffed with a bit of a glare, before she too sighed. "I'm not just about teasing and having fun you know? I'm a big sister too." That much was true… and Ruby seemed to have come out okay-ish… sort of…

"It's about Jaune – No Conclusions!" Blake hissed as she saw a grin come to Yang's lips before the woman wiped it off her face. "It's about what we found last night." And that killed the smile instantly, replacing it with a small frown and a faraway look.

"Ah. That." Yang muttered simply. The two of them continued their walk towards the gates to ensure none of the others would hear them as they discussed the matter. "I thought we agreed we would pretend that never happened."

"And I intend to." Blake agreed as her eyes trailed over a broken and snapped piece of wood with a red piece of fabric caught beneath, flapping wildly in the wind. "The four of us were shocked pretty badly by that. But we had ways to calm ourselves down and distract ourselves from it."

"Hmm… I get what you're saying. Ren and Nora, me and Rubes." Blake nodded.

"Yes. Jaune doesn't have anyone to talk to about what he'd seen. He wants to keep Pyrrha out of it, so he can't rely on his partner for any help. That's why I wanted to have a chance to talk with him, and offer any advice I can. Or just let him get it out of his system."

There was a silence as the two continued onwards. Blake felt exhausted as the words left her, and she could admit that it felt better to get it off her chest. She wasn't doing anything wrong per se, but she had to keep her intentions secret from half of their two teams, which was annoying.

"You didn't have anyone to help you either." Yang spoke up after a while, surprising her by not mentioning Jaune at all.

"Huh? W-well I've seen things like this before." She defended while she tried to collect her thoughts. "The White Fang were slowly becoming more militant, and I've been involved in fights in the past. I think I'm a little more experienced in the darkness of the world than Jaune is." _Than any of you are_ she didn't add. She'd always felt a little separate from her team for that reason. That for all of their training and fortitude they were still so naive and idealistic, in a world that would punish them for it.

There was no response for a moment, and after a long minute had passed Blake turned to look at her partner in question, only to gasp as Yang swept her face into her breasts and held them there.

"Y-yang!" Blake squeaked as her body was crushed into Yang's.

"Shhhh!" The blonde whispered as she rotated on the spot gently, dragging Blake along with her from side to side as she tried to free herself. "I didn't even think of helping you after what we saw… I was just so shocked I wanted to hold Ruby and make myself feel better. What kind of partner am I?"

"Yang. I don't need comforting!" Blake hissed out in embarrassment as she squirmed in the blonde's suffocating hold. Stupid dramatic partners with stupid super-strength hugs! Was this what Ren felt like?

"You sure?" Yang quipped as she ended the hug suddenly and left Blake collapsing to the floor to catch her breath. Sparing a glare up at the grinning and unrepentant blonde she climbed to her feet and dusted her tights down. "Seriously though. If you wanna talk about it, then I can listen."

"Thank you Yang." She sighed out as she smiled in genuine appreciation. "But it's Jaune I'm worried about, since Pyrrha certainly isn't going to be able to do anything to help him."

"You seem pretty at odds with P-money today. You sure you're not developing feelings for Jaune?" Despite the teasing words Yang looked serious as she asked that, so Blake gave her a serious answer.

"I'm still sure I'm not interested in Jaune." She said simply, making sure to be as honest as she could be, to which Yang nodded. "But I've _been_ in his situation before. Everyone has their idealistic views broken at some point or another. And the last thing you want is someone constantly asking you what's wrong. It's… sympathy, without empathy – it just makes you angry."

"Who helped you when it happened?" Yang asked and Blake paused in their walk to look up at the sky. The memories of her time in the White Fang were mostly regretful and disappointing. But it would be a lie to say there weren't good times too. Times of camaraderie, celebration and hope.

"He was my old partner. More of a mentor really. Adam." Yang leaned on a broken down wall next to her to listen in. Blake let the silence hang to see if the blonde would interrupt, but continued after a moment. "He was a pretty cold person. I was angry and upset, and he told me to get over it."

"Oh yeah, sounds real comforting." Yang snorted while Blake let out a short laugh.

"That's what I thought to. I was really angry and lashed into him a little. Verbally as well as physically. I think it took me months to realise that was him trying to comfort me, by giving me an outlet for my emotions." Not that Adam of all people had accepted her apology for her actions, nor her thanks for helping her… And that was possibly one of the few happy memories she had of the man who had become so cold. A sigh escaped her, this time mournful.

"But that life's over now."

"You have a new life now." Yang urged, nudging her once again with her shoulder while Blake laughed again.

"Yeah, I guess so. Either way… this is about Jaune, not me." And while she appreciated Yang's words, and she _did…_ she really did appreciate knowing she was valued so much. It was also pretty humiliating to have it said so clearly to your face – as well as uncomfortable. Was this level of overt love something you learned from having a family, she wondered.

"Yeah I get ya. So Jaune needs someone to talk to about this, and you're happy to be that someone?"

"Yes." She agreed with a nod. "Consider it continued repayment for him saving my life, or just my own efforts to make our friendship stronger. There's no secret reason to it though Yang. Just me understanding what he's going through."

"Yeah yeah. You know for a girl who reads so much porn you've got a really boring love life, geez."

_No worse than your own._ Blake thought to herself in amusement. Because no matter how much Yang made the comments; and the gestures to go along with them - she'd never invited a boy back to their dorm, or even kissed a guy in nearly a full year at Beacon.

"Sorry to disappoint you." She simply taunted back with a shake of her head.

"No problem kitty-kat. I'm waiting until your hormones take control and you burst. Then I'll be there to take pictures." She could tell the threat wasn't an idle one either, judging by the predatory look on the blonde's face. Lucky then that she had no such problems.

"So you wanted to arrange for you an' Jaune to hang out today so you could talk about what we'd seen. I can see your angle, but I don't think P-Money is going to play along."

"I can see that." Blake agreed with a drawn out groan. "Seriously she's been watching me so closely lately. Even yesterday when Jaune and I were setting up the fire she was hovering around listening in." She hadn't commented on it of course, but the champion had made it abundantly clear to Blake that she was listening in.

"Errr… yeah…." Yang stammered with a sudden nervousness. Blake spared her a confused glance before her amber eyes narrowed in sudden realisation.

"Yang… Anything you would like to tell the class?" The blonde continued to look away, prompting Blake to narrow her eyes further, taking silent pleasure in the stiffening of Yang's shoulders. After a few tense moments she seemed to sigh and slump.

"I may have perhaps mentioned within Pyrrha's hearing before we left… that you maybe were crushing on a certain blonde guy… maybe." Clarity dawned on Blake a moment later as she threw her arms in the air in annoyance.

"Jealousy!? That's what this is all about? And God's Yang, do you always have to stir the pot so badly!?"

"In my defence I didn't realise any of this shit would happen!" Yang argued back weakly. "It was supposed to just be a bit of amusing drama at school. It might even end with P-Money admitting her feelings for Jaune. A happy ending for everyone."

Blake resisted the urge to snap back as she considered the words. Teasing as Yang might be she couldn't be blamed for what was happening now. And if all of that had taken place at Beacon then even Blake might have found it subtly amusing.

"Alright, fine." Blake accepted with a grunt. "We'll sort this out when we get back to Beacon. Pyrrha will have to calm the Hell down though…" And maybe stop acting so possessive too, Jaune had plenty of friends and she didn't seem to act out against them. What was it about herself that made Pyrrha so nervous? Did she honestly think her and Jaune could even happen? They had nothing in common!

"Kay. I'll try sort this out when we get bac- Blake, the forest!"

The words were hissed out angrily as Blake leapt away from the wall in the direction Yang was pointing. Her eyes scanned left and right at the forest line for barely a moment before she saw a black shadow make its way deeper into the foliage. A Grimm… Probably a Beowolf considering where they were.

"Should we track it?" Blake whispered back as the two of them stealthily made their way out of the gates and out into the open. Yang seemed to think for a moment, her hands curling into fists and uncurling again unconsciously.

"Call Ruby, see what she says." Yang answered after a moment's thought. Blake nodded and made the call on her scroll, only to get no answer. A second attempt got the same and she grunted in frustration before reflexively calling Jaune's scroll.

"Jaune here." The boy answered as his image appeared on screen. He still looked tired, but it was less obvious now, little more than fatigue. "Blake? You alright?"

"I'm fine." She hurried out as Yang waved over her shoulder in greeting. "We've spotted a Beowolf entering the forest outside the village but we can't get hold of Ruby."

The blonde's face hardened in an instant at the words, and she could clearly see the burning anger in his eyes as he remembered what they had done. Her shoulders stiffened at the look on his face, even as she awaited his orders.

"Follow the Grimm, if you get the chance then kill it." The words were issued calmly but from the edge of the scroll Blake could see an almost shocked look on Pyrrha's face. Her own reaction was less surprised though, as she nodded in agreement. From behind her she could also feel Yang's approval of the order. "Blake!" He demanded again before she could end the call, and she responded automatically to his authoritative tone.

"Yes sir?" A moment later and she blushed slightly at the words having slipped from her lips, but she could hardly take them back – despite the brief flash of surprise on Jaune's face. It wasn't her fault though, he acted so much like some kind of commander when he pulled that expression and voice!

"No risks, okay?" His voice was softer this time, as Yang and her nodded easily back.

"No problems Vomit-boy. Team Bumblebee have got this!" The look on Jaune's face matched her own perfectly, as the call ended. Weird team names aside, they didn't exactly need Jaune's permission to engage any Grimm, but it was best if someone knew in case they went missing. If Ruby were to ask where they were, Jaune and Pyrrha would know.

"Sir, eh?" Yang teased as Blake groaned.

"It just came out." She complained as the two of them raced towards the forest, Blake loosening her weapon and wrapping the ribbon around her hand. "I think he reminded me of some of my old officers in the Fang."

"Well that's boring again." Yang complained as she pushed through bushes and leapt over a fallen log. "Here I was hoping you had the hots for guys who take control or something."

Blake didn't bother responding as she slowed her pace, eyes scanning the ground as she looked at the signs the Beowolf had left behind. Crushed flowers, broken branches and a general bend in the way the tall grass lay told a tale. It was lumbering slowly through the forest and didn't appear to be rushing. Probably nothing more than a straggler.

Enough to sate their desire for vengeance though.

"I see him ahead." Yang whispered as she pushed ahead. Blake peered through the leaves to see a single Beowolf rummaging around in some leaves on the floor. "Think he's alone?" It was a valid concern considering the training trip that had left Jaune in the infirmary for a couple of days. Whether they could actually communicate, or just had a simple pack mentality – Beowolves had proven themselves capable of calling for help, as well as making crude ambushes.

"You want to go in and find out?" Blake offered with a small grin to the blonde, which was returned a moment later. Yang stood up and took a step back, then a second, before launching.

"HEY!" Yang greeted as her fist ploughed into the Beowolf's face, Ember Cecilia discharging at point blank range, causing the Grimm's face to implode almost instantly as its body flew backwards. "How you doing?"

Predictably there was no response from the dead Grimm. But the answering snarls of others sounding around Yang as their bodies leapt from the trees was enough.

Blake's pistol bucked in her hand as she drew a bead on one of the leaping creatures, puncturing its throat as the bullet ended its life. Yang dodged through the gap made by her easily as the Grimm collapsed on her previous location. Ember Cecilia roared to life again as she delivered a devastating blow to the spinal column of one she had dodged past.

Blake didn't see anything beyond that though as she leapt into action herself, unlocking her weapon into its two separate parts as she span on the spot, letting her ribbon arch out angrily towards the group. _This is for the people you killed!_ She whispered angrily within her own mind as she leapt into the melee.

Calling the ensuring debacle a fight would have been unfair to the Beowolves, much as it had been to those innocents locked in the basement as they died. It was a massacre of which the Grimm had no chance of survival. Barely more than five in number, even half-asleep Blake could have taken the lot of them. To have both her and Yang, motivated by rage as they were, it was a fruitless battle.

Yet the creatures fought on, slashing claws that could never find their mark, and hairy bodies that became covered in thick blood as they died.

Barely two minutes later saw Yang and Blake standing amongst the remains, dusting off spilled blood with loose clumps of grass. From where she stood she could see that what the original Beowolf had been digging up appeared to be an animal carcass.

"That was easy enough." Yang half complained as Blake pushed through some of the branches past the Beowolves. What she saw made her pause in surprise.

"Yang… You might want to see this."

"What is it-whoah…" The blonde let out a whistle from beside Blake as she pushed through the bushes. Blake followed close behind as she sheathed her weapon, not sensing any Grimm nearby. "These are…. Tracks?"

Blake could understand her hesitance. The ground was churned up and destroyed in a great furrow across the forest floor, carrying on out of sight into the distance. It was as though a heavy duty vehicle had powered its way through wet mud, leaving ruined ground behind. Except that clawed footprints could occasionally be made out in the hardened earth.

Any grass, flowers or plant life had been completely and utterly destroyed in the path, which was around four metres wide and carried on for Gods knew how long.

"I've never seen Beowolves leave this much destruction behind… not even when fighting." Yang mused as the two of them stepped gingerly onto the track itself. The footprints were hardened to Blake's touch, meaning that whatever had caused them had clearly been gone for many hours.

"A normal pack wouldn't." Blake agreed as she stood in the middle of the tracks, marvelling at how many Beowolves could have caused such a phenomenon. "This looks like the kind of ruined ground a vehicle would leave behind… or a huge amount of people walking in formation."

"Or Grimm." Yang echoed both their thoughts, making Blake shake her head in denial.

"It can't be. Grimm don't travel in formation, and to cause this much destruction… there would have had to have been hundreds of them. Maybe even thousands!"

Surely that couldn't be true though… that many Grimm in one place hadn't been seen before in recorded history, and there was no way the military could have missed so many Grimm travelling in one large group.

Except that the treetop canopy was still solid above them, and there was no telling how long ago the Grimm had been here. From a bullhead in the sky it would be nearly impossible to see the disturbance on the ground without really looking for it. Even then you might have been able to dismiss it as a dried out riverbed or something similar.

"The claws point away from the village. Going East." Yang interrupted her thoughts as the blonde knelt down in the dried mud and traced her fingers across some of the churned up Earth. East, wasn't that further into Vale?

"We need to alert team CFVY." Blake urged as she knelt down and slipped out her scroll. Thankfully the contact details of the team had been sent to all of their scrolls. The number on the scroll blurred for a few seconds as it rang. Once. Twice.

"Yo this is Coco. Sorry I'm not here at the moment, I'm either shopping or kicking ass, leave a message or send me a text. Ciao."

"You'd think our area leader would be more responsible, eh?" Yang quipped from behind Blake as she stared at the scroll in silent shock. Really… she had turned her scroll off when she was their only point of contact!?

Standing up Blake decided to do what she could either way, snapping a few photos of the tracks and disturbance, as well as taking down a reference of their co-ordinates so that whoever wanted to come investigate could find it again. Once she had collected all the material she attached it to a single folder and forwarded it to Coco's scroll. Hopefully the pictures would be interesting enough to catch her attention and make her respond. If team CFVY wasn't facing their own problems right now…

"That's all we can do." Blake took a few seconds to climb out of the furrow made by the Grimm before dusting herself down. Yang leapt up beside her with a quick grin as she kicked her boots against her heels to loosen the mud clinging to them.

"Yeah, looks like we answered most of the questions though. Beowolves, lot's, heading East through the forest. Go us. Mission accomplished, time to go home, right?"

Blake rolled her eyes but smiled in agreement. Technically they had answered most of the questions that the General wanted, and with a transport coming to pick them up tomorrow morning they could return to Beacon with a mission under their belt. Then they could head back to their dorm and get some well-deserved sleep. In comfortable beds, with warm sheets and soft pillows.

"It will be good to sleep in our own beds again." Blake mumbled as the two of them started to make their way back towards the village, careful to follow their own tracks lest they get lost.

"Heh. It always surprises me somehow that you're the one who has the worst trouble sleeping rough. I always thought Weiss would be the one to never be able to sleep outside a bed." Blake spared her a look without any real heat in it before sighing. Truthfully she had expected Weiss to speak up as well, but the Heiress seemed quite prepared and willing to sleep rough.

"I just struggle to sleep unless I'm warm. And those filing cabinets didn't help." She had always been like that, wrapping up in cloaks and blankets whenever she could. Part of her wondered if it had something to do with her faunus heritage… some faunus seemed to inherit traits from their respective animals, and cats were pretty notorious for liking warm and soft places.

She'd never before been so frustrated with her heritage than with this habit - especially since it left her irritable in the mornings. Not to mention that it made her look high maintenance in comparison to her team. High maintenance… on a team with Weiss Schnee…

"Aww, you're such a cute little kitten." Yang teased, unfortunately coming to the same conclusion Blake herself had. She had really hoped that wouldn't become a recurring theme with her partner.

"We all have our little habits and problems Yang." Blake mumbled without any real heat. Yang didn't mean anything with her teasing, and somehow it felt nice to have her faunus heritage relegated to nothing more than a casual joke between them.

"Heh, not me." Yang boasted, somehow ignoring the raised eyebrow Blake was giving her. That seemed to be another theme with her. _She should hear herself snoring… I can't believe how quickly we all had to get used to ear-plugs just to survive… _

Not that she would ever consider changing Yang. For all her silly faults, and Gods there were a lot… she was impatient, reckless, annoying, loud, flirtatious, teasing and really vain about her hair… Still, Yang was _her_ partner. She was nothing like her old partner, who had been so damned cold… not just in his mannerisms, but also his voice and personality.

Perhaps it was ironic that now _she_ was probably considered the cold one in this duo. Either way a smile came to her lips as she imagined herself with Adam's typical angry frown.

Her thoughts were interrupted as her scroll buzzed and vibrated in her pocket. Yang stopped to wait for her as she dug the device out and flipped it open. For a moment there was a brief flash of surprise as Jaune's face appeared instead of Coco's as she had expected.

"Jau-?" Blake wrenched the device from her ear as a loud piercing gunshot sounded from the scroll, along with a loud roar.

"We're under attack!" Jaune's voice shouted from the scroll, almost muted compared to the sounds of frantic panic around him. "Call help, get back here!" The scroll flickered before going blank as the call ended, while Blake and Yang shared a look for a moment before jumping into action.

"I'll go in first!" Yang urged as the two of them broke into a run to get back to the village. "You get in touch with Coco, get reinforcements then meet up with us inside!" Blake nodded back, knowing her skills and speed would be best for acting alone. Yang would be able to use her momentum to break through to the others without too much danger.

The two of them broke from the forest line, the wooden walls of Elgard coming back into view as Yang cursed angrily. It wasn't Beowolves this time… instead she could clearly see Ursa in staggering numbers milling around the walls. With the gates wide open they hadn't had any trouble getting into the village, not that eight hunters-in-training could have defended the walls.

"I'll meet you inside." Yang shouted to her with a thumbs up as she began a charge towards the main gates. For a short moment Blake had a flash of doubt. The village and all its inhabitants had fallen to something similar, would this be their end too? The last image she had of Yang?

_No. Keep it together!_ She hissed to herself as she knelt down by the forest and brought out her scroll to call team CFVY again. They had been in similarly bad positions before, and unlike the inhabitants of Elgard they were trained in combat.

"Yo, this is Coco. Sorry I'm-" The message continued as Blake stared down at her scroll in complete shock. This couldn't be happening. Not now! _No, no no, this is ridiculous!_

"We need help, we're under attack! Send help immediately!" She shouted into the scroll as the automated message came to an end. She followed that up by typing the exact same message and sending it to the same number.

_No time for hesitation._ She thought to herself as she reached over one shoulder and snapped Gambol Shroud into two parts, fingers loosening and tightening on the grips to get her blood circulating properly. Unlike Yang she would take a few brief moments to prepare herself, and find a good approach. There was only the one gate, and the walls were tall and made of solid vertical logs of wood, sharpened to points at the peak. Climbing those would be out of the question, and there was hardly anything for her ribbon to hang on. Main gates it was.

She began her approach, her legs taking long strides as she loped towards the gates making sure to maintain her stamina for the upcoming battle than waste energy on a poor charge. The first Ursa to sense her approach turned to regard her, but it was too slow.

_Over a hundred at least. We can't kill them all._ She dodged under a poorly thrown slash before hopping onto the Ursa's head and using the bone plate as a foothold to jump high over two more in front of her. _Fighting here would be pointless, it would be best to save my energy to defend with the others._ Resisting her ingrained training to take the opportunity the next Ursa presented to her was difficult. Like a belligerent and unintelligent animal it overextended in a single attack that would have killed her had it connected.

The clone she left in her place as she leapt upwards died in her place and the beast fell on top of its location, letting her land and run over its distracted form. What Ursa lacked in intelligence and agility, they made up for in strength, stamina and aggression. And with so many of them to deal with, stamina was the last thing they needed their enemies to have.

_Where are the others?_ She wondered as she ducked into a ruined building, the Ursa she had left behind lumbering to its feet and looking around in apparent confusion. It would find her scent soon enough, but she only needed a few seconds to listen.

_Come on Ruby… I know you want to…_ A loud gunshot rang out a distance to her left, the distinctive crack of Crescent Rose a sound she had long gotten used to hearing. Its timbre was so incredibly different from her and Yang's weapons, that Blake could recognise it as easily as Ruby's voice. The sound calmed her beating heart as she pushed her way through a weak and rickety wooden wall and leapt across an abandoned street in the direction the shot had come from.

Ahead of her she could already hear the loud explosions of Yang's Ember Cecilia discharging its shotgun rounds, as well as the loud taunting the blonde was famous for. It would be just like Yang to take on every single Ursa that got in her way. Always the front door approach with that girl.

Still, the distraction was keeping most of the nearby Ursa occupied – even if it probably was attracting every other Ursa in the region.

"What kept you?" Yang laughed as Blake leapt past her and struck down the Ursa Yang was currently dealing with. "Also that one was mine."

"Sorry. I wanted to check my mail, there's some new books coming out." Blake snapped back with a smirk. "Also I didn't exactly see your name on it."

"I'll book you in for eye tests when we get back to Beacon." Yang joked as the two of them joined forces once more to speed towards where the others were fighting. From where they stood Blake could just about make out the forms of their friends fighting atop the walls themselves. They looked to be defending one of the various walkways up onto the walls, long sloping staircases which were spread out ever four or five hundred metres.

Internally Blake thought the location was a sensible one. Not only because they had instinctively sought the high ground in combat, but also because it limited the angles of approach the Grimm could take to reach them. The melee combatants could also hold the stairs, while those with long range weaponry could support from atop the walls.

"We can't go up the steps they're defending. We'll just get in the way." Blake urged as they rushed towards that point. Yang nodded and pointed to the closest staircase to the left. The Grimm seemed to have little trouble figuring out they could use the other staircases to get onto the walls – but there were far less than on the main staircase. And less risk of friendly fire either. "We should conserve ammo."

"Going in hot!" Yang shouted as she reached the bottom of the staircase first, an Ursa who was just about to start climbing turned to face her in time to receive a backhand blow to the face. Thrown aside, there was no time to make sure it was dead as Yang dashed up five more steps before gripping another by its hind leg and forcing it to topple to the side off the stairs. The third made itself a more difficult target, blocking Yang's strike with a meaty arm but not being pushed back. Blake, who was used to seeing Yang's opponents fly back in agony, was shocked until she realised a weakness in Yang's assault.

Without using Ember Cecilia's shots, Yang's blows weren't strong enough to knock down an Ursa in a single blow! And while her semblance could obviously be used to give her the strength necessary, she couldn't really do that on the move. By the time she built the necessary power they might be overrun!

"I've got this." Blake urged as she ducked under the blonde's arm that was now grappling with the Ursa, and delivered a solid strike to its larynx, spilling lifeblood across the floor as well as her arm. With the Grimm's body weakening Yang was able to use her own physical strength to topple the beast behind them, providing an obstacle for any Grimm that might be trying to pursue them.

Blake knew their position wasn't a good one, trapped in the middle of a set of stairs with Grimm both above and below them, but the only way they were going to be able to reach the others would be to keep the momentum going. They had to clear the staircase faster than other Grimm could ascend behind them and spring the trap. There was only one way out of a pincer - attack one side with full force and escape!

The next Grimm they faced lunged down towards them before a loud crack sounded and it slumped to the ground. Blake let out a sigh of relief as she heard another loud gunshot as the next fell. Looked like Ruby had been able to make them out through her scope and had decided to help them. Yang turned and gave her a proud grin, which Blake returned as the two of them sprinted up the last few steps and emerged onto the walkway of the wall itself.

A quick glance behind them showed a group of Grimm pushing their way up the staircase in pursuit, while ahead of them a large body of Ursai was still crashing against their allies.

"Let's go!" Yang shouted as the two of them charged the rear of the Grimm ahead of them, Gambol Shroud spinning in deadly arcs even as Yang delivered punishing strikes to weak points on the back of the Grimm, disabling their knees or spines. Idly Blake made a promise to herself to force Yang to learn how to use some kind of bladed weapon when they returned, or at least add some spikes or something to Ember Cecilia. Without spending ammo they were relegated to little more than ornate knuckle dusters.

"Yang, Blake!" Ruby's voice shouted out over the din. The two of them broke through the Ursa a moment later and could make out the forms of Pyrrha and Ren ahead of them. The redhead nodded to them as they ducked between the two, to come to a halt before Ruby who was furiously reloading her weapon.

"Yo sis. We found some Ursa, you?" Yang teased as she calmed her heavy breathing. Ruby giggled slightly at the silly joke before her face became more serious.

"We've spread out as best we can, defending this point. Pyrrha and Ren are covering the walkway in the direction you came from. Weiss and Jaune are covering the walkway the other way, while Nora is manning the stairs alone."

"I'll go help P-money and Ren!" Yang cheered before jogging back in that direction. Blake took a longer moment to catch her breath as Ruby began discharging her rifle again, aiming most of her shots at the Grimm climbing the stairs to get to Nora.

A quick glance over the points of the palisade wall showed that there was a large number of Grimm herding around below them, seemingly unable to climb the walls or figure out a way to get up to them. Despite their stupidity, they had still unwittingly cut off their only escape route. They were trapped just like the people in the basement…

"I'll help Jaune and Weiss." Blake spoke easily, accepting the nod from Ruby as she lightly jogged towards the two that were less than fifty feet ahead of her. She wasn't sure who had decided the teams to defend the wall, but it had clearly been a wise idea to split Pyrrha and Jaune up. As the only two with shields they were able to provide the defence against the Ursai while their new partners delivered the killing blow. They had so much limited space that they couldn't afford to give ground or dodge too much lest they lose their footing and fall of the wall… The confined method of fighting wasn't something that she, Weiss or Ren were really used to...

"Blake!" Weiss gasped in relief as the faunus came to a halt beside the tired heiress. A quick smile from the normally reserved Schnee warmed her heart, but they couldn't waste any time with greetings as the next Ursai wave fell upon them.

Jaune moved to engage one, his shield blocking its strike as he pushed further into its guard in an attempt to shield bash it or knock it down. Weiss let out a breath as she darted forwards to strike a second that had pushed past the engaged knight. Blake moved to support Jaune, trusting Weiss to be capable of dispatching her foe without any trouble. The Ursa kept its focus on the prey it was grappling with, not even seeing Blake as she ran past it and pirouetted on one foot, slamming her blade into the back of its calf and wrenching it out again in a single controlled movement.

Effectively hamstrung, the creature couldn't hold up as Jaune struck it again with the flat of his shield, letting it fall to the floor as he stepped on its chest and plunged his blade downwards into its chest. Blake cocked her head to the side at the image of him standing atop his downed foe in victory, thinking it surprisingly apt before shaking her head.

"Blake." He spoke simply in greeting, nodding his head even as his look of concentration remained. Blake nodded back, her own face adopting the same frown as she stood next to him in her combat stance.

"Weiss take a break." She shouted back, just catching the thanks from the heiress as the girl slumped down against the wall's palisade. The walkway was thin enough for two people to defend it, and there was no telling how long… _if_… aid would come for them. They would have to rotate each other so they could have a moment to catch their breath.

_I hope Nora can hold the stairs on her own… at least both her and Ruby have longer weapons, and the advantage of height._

"Were you able to get in touch with reinforcements?" Jaune asked as they watched the approaching Ursa pause to climb over the bodies of their fallen. Blake refused to meet his eyes or respond, unwilling to answer that question and destroy their morale. "Ah…" Jaune muttered in apparent realisation of what her silence meant, but didn't comment on it.

Any further conversation was cut off as the Ursa hit their line like a black tidal wave filled with teeth and claws.

* * *

><p>"Blake, you okay?" A feminine voice asked as the black haired faunus gasped and staggered slightly on her feet. <em>Jaune… your voice sounds strange…<em> She couldn't help her mind wonder as she looked around for the blonde man. Her eyes instead found the white locks of Weiss Schnee as the girl stood by her, rapier tipped towards the ground. White dress smeared with red.

"Weiss? Where's Jaune?" She gasped out as she greedily accepted a metal flask of water the girl handed her, gulping down the contents so quickly that water spilled and ran down her chin.

"He broke off to take a break ten minutes ago…" The girl replied with a concerned voice, as Blake's amber eyes widened in surprise. Ten minutes ago? How long had they been fighting… how tired was she that she had not even noticed that her combat partner had been replaced by Weiss? "Do you need a break… I … might be able to hold here alone."

_That's a lie._ Her mind assessed even as she stared into Weiss's face. Smudged with dirt and covered in sweat. Weiss would die in an instant if she tried to hold the wall alone, just as she would… it was only teamwork and their ability to fight the Ursa two versus one that was giving them the edge. After so long fighting, they were too tired to fight the Ursa with the same level of skill and ability as they usually did… Weiss had barely any dust left, and they had all run dry on ammo long ago.

"I'm okay." Blake tried to assure her, not willing to risk her friend's… Weiss'… no, her friend's life. Even if Weiss was somehow willing to risk her own to protect Blake. "Thank you Weiss."

"For what?" The heiress asked as the two of them fought back another Ursa, Blake's gun clicking empty as she clicked her own lips in frustration before attacking in melee instead.

"For offering to let me rest… and for forgiving me?" Blake commented, more as a question than a statement. "For being my friend I guess." The Ursa fell forward as it died, forcing them to take a step back to avoid the body. They were giving ground again, now they were only ten or so feet from the central staircase and Nora, who was resting as Ruby held the stairs. If they gave any more ground then they would bump backs with the others… and be overrun.

"I thought I told you not to mention the White Fang again." Weiss gasped out as she raised her rapier into a ready stance once more, the tip wavering slightly at the effort.

"Sorry." Blake apologised with a shaky laugh. _Why am I even talking about this?_ She wondered… this level of random chat wasn't in her personality at all. _It's because you're going to die._ Her cynical mind whispered back. _And you want to know you didn't die with regrets._

"Thanks as well." She heard Weiss whisper back, but she didn't press the heiress. Thanks for treating her like a normal girl? Thanks for not letting the Schnee name influence how she treated her? Who cared - what did it even matter between friends?

_She knows it's the end as well, looks like I'm not the only one looking to get things off my chest._

"I'm back." A masculine voice whispered as he stepped between them once more, clanging his sword against his shield to attract the attention of the Grimm away from the two girls. "Someone else take a break."

"Blake." Weiss instantly ordered. Blake made to argue but the look in the heiress' eyes stopped her instantly. Instead she gave in and staggered next to Nora, before slumping down against the girl with a loud thud of flesh against wood. On the other side of the orange haired girl was her partner Ren, his eyes closed as he leaned back against Nora. Asleep, or meditating… she couldn't tell.

Her shaking hands pulled her scroll out once more as she opened it. A mixture of feelings assaulted her, something between a chasm opening in her stomach, and bitter stinging in her dry eyes at the blank screen. No messages. She'd had _one_ job – secure reinforcements, and she had failed them.

"I take it no one is coming?" The calm voice of Ren interrupted her thoughts, his eyes were still closed and he didn't look at her, but she knew who he was talking to.

"I'm sorry." She simply gasped out, too exhausted to say more or offer any excuses, if she could even think of any.

"It's not your fault." Ren answered simply. Nora simply giggled.

"Don't worry Blakey." Nothing more than that, not that Blake could bring herself to argue. Did Nora even realise the danger they were in? Somehow Blake thought she did, the question was more whether she was putting on her happy demeanour for their sakes – or if it honestly would last until the end.

Letting out a long sigh the exhausted girl tilted her head to look past her two recovering friends, eyes briefly skimming past Ruby, who despite her clear fatigue was still diligently using the advantage of higher ground and reach to keep the Ursa busy. They came up the stairs so sporadically now that Blake wondered if the staircase itself was so filled with bodies that it was obstructing others from climbing up.

Yang and Pyrrha were fighting not twenty feet ahead of them, the two also apparently having been pushed back by the continuous onslaught, though not as much as their team had. How long had they even been fighting now, twenty minutes, thirty, longer?

Yang's lustrous blonde hair was dripping with sweat and she could clearly see steam rising from it as her semblance evaporated the moisture immediately. Her fists swung with more force now than they had earlier, though she was clearly devoid of ammunition, her semblance was providing the power necessary. Beside her the red-headed champion was fighting with sword and shield, tanking more blows than she normally would was the biggest sign of her waning endurance. Blake wasn't sure if Pyrrha had even taken a single break since this had begun… but with Yang and Pyrrha side by side, this flank was much more secure than their own.

A few short minutes passed by, the seconds doing little to recover her stamina as she closed her eyes against the midday sun. Fumbling hands pushed another canteen of water into her hands as she wordlessly raised it to her lips and drank once more. Little point saving water, she thought to herself as she closed her lips and let some more pour out onto her face to cool her down.

Eyes snapping open she forced herself onto her knees again as she shook her face to shed the loose droplets from her skin. Weiss and Jaune were side by side once more and were holding their ground with unwavering determination, but their strikes were slow and clumsy. It was only a matter of time before they stumbled and were lost.

_If I have to die, it'll be on my feet!_ She snarled to herself as she staggered up and gripped Gambol Shroud tightly. With three people there wouldn't be any time to rest, but by now they'd each need a few hours to recover anyway, it was their final stand.

"Blake, you can't have had a proper rest." Jaune argued as she stepped past him to deflect a strike from an Ursa's claw and score a deep furrow along its arm. She didn't bother responding to his comment but instead stood between Weiss and Jaune in readiness. There were no more arguments.

"Here they come again." Weiss sighed out as a new enemy approached, roaring angrily as it swung in almost mindless rage at the three of them. Weiss ducked below the arm, while Blake simply leaned back to let it pass in front of her face. The arm struck Jaune's shield and stopped once more as the blonde grunted. Grabbing the arm to keep it still, Blake watched as Weiss' rapier passed upwards into the Grimm's armpit, piercing through the muscle into its heart as it began to slump. Combining her strength with Jaune's, the two of them were able to divert the falling beast off the wall so that it tumbled down below. They couldn't afford to allow any more bodies to fall forwards on their positions or they would be pushed back even further.

Shouting out in anger Blake leapt forwards to engage the next, hoping to win back ground by pressing the attack. A glyph shining below her feet gave her the boost necessary to strike its face with her blade before it could even react to her unexpected charge. A reflexive blow from its arm struck her midriff and pushed her back, causing her to cough heavily before righting herself. Her aura was so dangerously low, but as long as she didn't let their claws cut her she should be okay.

"Looks like we're going the way of the residents." Jaune shouted to her as the two pushed forwards to the next Ursa before engaging it in combat. This time Blake drew its attention into swinging at her before dodging as Jaune shield charged it from the other side in an effort to knock it off the wall. Instead the Grimm proved too sturdy and knocked the two of them back with a furious swipe of its paws.

Another lunge came their way as the two of them dodged back to avoid it. Blake's heels caught against the corpse of a previous Grimm as she stumbled onto her back. Her eyes wide in sudden fear for a moment before Weiss leapt above her form to dispatch the Grimm with a single lightning thrust. Hands reached under her shoulders to drag her back as she struggled to climb to her feet.

"You okay?" Jaune asked as he helped her stand, her legs swaying as she leant her face into his chest briefly to catch her breath. If he thought anything of the action he didn't bother mentioning it, no doubt he was just as tired as her.

"I… I…" Weiss stammered from in front of them, catching their attention though her own eyes were fixed behind them. "I don't believe it…" White hair flared to the side as the heiress let out a long and loud laugh to their confusion.

A pause in the roaring and clanging of metal sounded over the battlefield as Blake and Jaune turned to look where Weiss was staring. Only now audible over the clamour of battle was the humming of a familiar engine as a small number of specks in the sky shot in their direction.

"They came!" Jaune shouted out needlessly, his voice a mixture of shock and almost religious fervour. Yang's own voice whooped in joy even as Nora shot to her feet and span her war hammer with renewed vigour, screaming something at the Grimm, at them? Who even cared anymore?

"We need space to get on the bullheads!" Pyrrha shouted out past all the noise. "Push them back!"

Blake nodded as her eyes narrowed, renewed hope providing her body with energy she wasn't aware she actually had. If they were to try and climb into the Bullheads then they would need some running space, or some room for them to attempt a landing of some kind. That couldn't be achieved with the Grimm pushing them back on every side.

"You heard her!" Jaune shouted as he raised his sword one last time and pushed forward. Weiss rolled her eyes towards Blake, but even then the sarcastic action was undermined by the fond and excited curl to the girl's lips.

"Die!" Jaune shouted at the first Ursa he reached, slamming its claw aside with a sideways blow of his shield as he rammed the point of Crocea Mors into its sternum before wrenching it out and slicing across the beast's eyes. Weiss slipped past him as she lunged past another Ursa, a whisper thin line slicing across its throat as it struggled to breathe past its severed windpipe.

Still mindful of the bodies on the ground Blake advanced slowly, whipping her weapon around on one side of her much like she had a string of sausages on one afternoon that seemed _so_ long ago. As the momentum built up she unleashed it towards an Ursa running towards her on all fours, the blade arching up and above and puncturing into the back of its neck with punishing force. A gust of wind passed them a moment later as a bullhead slowed its descent to a hover in the air just off the wall. A woman stood in the open entranceway, one hand holding onto the hydraulic arm holding the ramp open as she looked at them.

"Yo." The sunglasses wearing girl greeted easily. "Anyone need a hand?"

Blake wasn't sure what she wanted to do in return, maybe offer a wise crack in return, or scream abuse at the woman she had been unable to reach. In the end she let her exhaustion decide as she simply stared at her with a blank expression on her face.

"Tough crowd. Ah well." The girl bemoaned as she deployed her weapon, a fully sized mini-gun that seemed to come from her handbag. What kind of weapon was that?

_A very powerful one..._ She was forced to concede a moment later as a wave of bullets cut into the Grimm ahead of them, clearing the wall for a full twenty metres in a single moment, even as the Bullhead pulled away to provide support on the other flank.

"Weiss, me and Blake can hold here. Help Ruby get onto the Bullhead. She can't leave the stairs until the last moment!" Jaune commanded as he pointed to the small red girl who was still using her scythe to reap a tally on the Grimm climbing the stairs. Weiss nodded as she shot off, leaving the two alone.

"I guess we made it." Blake mumbled pointlessly, her mind still feeling light and confused at the sudden change of events. Beside her Jaune offered her a huge smile, his face covered in blood and bruises, but his teeth still bright white. She wanted to laugh at his gesture but instead shook her head in amusement.

Another two bullheads pushed past the two of them while a third began to slow down as it approached. From behind her she could see Ren and Yang climbing onto the ramp of one of the vehicles, even as a familiar rabbit eared girl leapt off to help relieve the girls on the staircase.

The bullhead which pulled up across from them slowly opened its ramp to the pair, the metal lip touching down on top of the wooden spikes of the wall so they wouldn't risk injury climbing over. As Blake scrambled her way onto the grooved metal her eyes peeked over the edge to see a hungry pack of Ursa below roaring up in rage.

She turned in concern to help Jaune onto the ramp but he had no problem, even wearing heavier armour and wielding a weighty sword and shield he was able to pull himself up and stagger over to walk past her. He offered her a grin as he strapped himself into one of the seats and leaned his head back on a small cushion provided for comfort. Blake could agree, even now it looked incredibly inviting.

"All targets acquired, hold on tight!" A male voice shouted over a speaker system to them as the ramp started to grind to a close as the Bullhead slowly pulled away from the wall. In the closing gap she could make out Yang waving eagerly to her from a different Bullhead, the girl's huge smile visible even from this distance.

The walls of Elgard began to move away from them, one metre and then two. Blake couldn't say she would be sad to see the dead village gone from their lives forever. There could be no civilisation here anymore, and this would probably be just remembered as another Mountain Glenn. Closing her eyes she took a long breath.

A sound of screeching metal snapped her eyes back open, even as the world lurched to one side precariously, throwing her from her feet as her face slammed painfully into a metal wall. A loud klaxon blared angrily from within the cargo bay, drowning out whatever Jaune was shouting. Holding onto a seat for purchase Blake stared up towards the ramp to see a thick arm reaching in between the gap, locking the ramp open.

"The Ursa!" Jaune's voice could be just made out over the noise and swirling vision, even as she tried to loosen Gambol Shroud from her back. If she could just loosen its hold then they would be fine! Before she could even attempt to throw her weapon their motion halted with an incredible bang and her body was torn from the floor and propelled into the metal wall with incredible force.

White lights flashed in front of her eyes even as her battered chest struggled to draw in breath. The last thing she could see as their vehicle began free fall was the barest flashes of green leaves through the aircraft's open ramp. Then there was an almighty crash, and the world went black.

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><p><strong>Welp – Cliffhanger I guess. I don't normally like the idea of using them, but then again this is only the second time I have after the opening chapter. I'm one of those people who hates when they are used every single chapter by other authors. Especially when they seem to want to use them for things that aren't even cliff hangers…. <strong>

**Holy Christ. Someone once complained about short chapters, well this one was 21 pages! I hope you enjoyed it, there was a lot of ground to cover in this one.**

**Also I'm sure EVERYONE will realise this, but I'll include it for the sake of anyone who somehow does not. Yes I realise RWBY and JNPR can defeat Ursa. These are not super-Ursa or anything, but they are exhausted and out of ammo and dust. And almost all of them use dust to power their attacks in some way, and those that don't – rely on stamina… after 30+ minutes fighting for their lives, they were obviously so exhausted that they were struggling. **

**WHERE IS THE BLAKE x JAUNE ROMANCE PROMISED! – I'm so sorry but next chapter will really be just about the two of them, wahhhh!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Okay, here we go. Thank you all ever so much for your reviews! To a recent reviewer, yeah I made some mistakes calling them Grim, thankfully another corrected me early on – so it should all be Grimm now. I should probably go back and change things, but I'm always worried it will alert people, and they might be disappointed that it's just grammar changes...**

**But onto another reviewer question I got multiple times for the last two chapters. About Grimm intelligence and bodies, I'll explain briefly here, but feel free to skip if you aren't interested.**

**Grimm Intelligence – The series calls them mindless multiple times, but I feel there is a distinction here. In language we do not mean "without a brain/intelligence" when we say mindless, it's more like – no deeper reasoning, in a rage... As such Grimm have shown in the anime that they have some small amount of intelligence, otherwise how would they know how to even bite? Or gather in packs? Or that they should DODGE attacks? Also how could ancient Grimm learn, if early Grimm have literaly ZERO intelligence? So Grimm in my tale are the same – they can't learn until they are older, but early on if they see a person entering a door – they know the person is behind the door. Like any animal would. It's more instinctual behaviour, which is why Pyrrha talked of prey, and such. The Grimm do hunt humans, so it makes sense that the main group would have moved on once the humans were dead. She doesn't think that Grimm ARE like animals, but is drawing a comparison because their behaviour does mimic animals in certain ways. I.e. method of attack, hunting behaviour, etc… Grimm hunt humans in almost the exact same way that wolves/other four legged animals hunt their prey. They are BASED on animals after all. **

**Grimm Food – You are all right, they do not need to eat. There is some reference to them choosing to, etc. In this chapter you might gain an idea of the scale of the attack, so things might make sense.**

**Grimm Bodies – Do the bodies dissolve? Yes and no, the anime actually keeps changing its mind on this! I see some dissolve instantly, others simply smoke, and some just leave body parts. Similarly Port has a skeleton in his classroom. =/ - In this fic I have made it so that Grimm dissolve based on their size. I.e. Beowolves might start vanishing ten minutes after death, while Ursa might take an hour. But they begin to smoke and slowly dissolve almost instantly. It just takes time, ergo some bodies are left over.**

**Sorry for the size of the AN!**

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><p><strong>Beta: Super Saiyan Cyndaquill<strong>

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><p>Chapter 8<p>

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><p>Jaune's eyes flickered open slowly, the vision in front of him blurring as he gritted his teeth in pain. Everything ached. From his neck and shoulders down to his legs, dull pain rocketed through every vein and artery in his body, and it felt like something was crushing his chest, constricting his breathing painfully.<p>

Eyes scrunched closed in an effort to minimise the pain, his gloved hands fumbled towards his chest, running up and down his body to find what was suffocating him. Biting leather straps across his chest, and a single buckle in the middle of his sternum were pushing into him. Numb fingers fumbled with the buckle to release himself, not quite understanding why it was so tight in the first place. The metal release catch gave way with a gentle push, and the straps snapped open as gravity caught him. Blue eyes snapped open in sudden clarity as he plummeted four feet towards metal, his body twisting at the last second so that it was his shoulder that struck the metal floor and not his face.

Rolling softly onto his back Jaune stared up at the crumpled remains of an upturned bullhead above him, the seats he had been buckled into hanging upside down. The realisation of the situation they were in struck him instantly, not so much as flashes of memory, but of complete understanding crashing into his head like his body had the floor.

Their Bullhead had been taken down and they had crashed. Into the forest obviously, considering the green foliage and trees around them. It seemed that even as the aircraft was being dragged to the ground the pilot had managed to navigate it away from the starving pack of Ursai below them.

_Shit, the pilot!_ _No,_ _Blake!_ Hands scrambled below as he flipped himself over and pushed his body onto tired legs. Maybe he should have been expected to give equal attention to each of them, but his scared eyes only looked for one person, settling on a white and black form laid face down just a few metres from him.

"Blake!" He whispered furiously as he surged forwards, his legs buckling after the first few steps, forcing him to drag his body along on his knees. Hands hesitated for a moment before he pushed on and gently pushed her over, gently placing one arm under her neck to hold her head up. Her head fell to the side to rest against his chest.

"Blake! Blake, wake up, please!" Jaune begged, his free hand gently touching her neck in desperation to find some sign that she was alive. A strong pulse caused a breath of pure relief to escape him, but there was no time to relax yet. "Come on Blake…" He whispered as he gently tapped her cheeks, wishing he knew a safer way of waking someone up than this.

"Ugh…" The girl against him grunted, the skin around her eyes tightening slightly as her lips pursed before going slack again. As gently as he could he continued tapping her cheeks, not wanting to cause her pain but knowing they would be in trouble if they stayed here. "Ughhh…." She moaned once more as her head shook from side to side in protest of his treatment.

One eye cracked open slowly, a baleful yellow orb staring into his face before it closed again, the girl's entire face twisting into a light grimace.

"Well that's a bit insulting." He tried to joke, though it came out in a slightly hysterical whisper. He stopped his tapping though, trusting that the girl was waking up as best she was able. Weak hands gripped the cloth of his hoodie above her head, the girl trying to drag herself into a sitting position as he helped her to sit up.

"J-Jaune?" She stammered as her eyes slowly opened once more, blinking a few times before seeking out his own. "Where are we?"

"The forest outside Elgard." He replied without hesitation. "Our Bullhead crashed when we tried to escape." He didn't bother trying to give Blake the truth slowly, or water it down. Blake had always been one of the calmer ones between both their teams, and to be honest, if he was going to be stuck in a bad situation like this – he would rather have Blake or Ren with him than anyone else. This wasn't something brute strength was going to be able to get them out of.

"Ugh, I remember." Blake mumbled as her hand kneaded the skin of her forehead. "Just our luck. How long have we been here for?"

"I don't know." He admitted with a frown marring his features. How long had they been unconscious for after such an accident? It had to have been some time… if it was recent then the other Bullheads would definitely be audible. Because there was _no way_ the others had just left after they had crashed. No matter how bad the situation looked, he couldn't believe for even a second that the others would have abandoned them.

"A while at least." He added as he fumbled around with his free hand in his pack, bringing out his scroll only to find the screen smashed beyond all repair. No matter how much he tried he couldn't get a light to appear. "Damn it… Did your scroll survive?"

Blake looked at him for a moment before finally seeming to realise the position they were in as she pushed away from him to stagger to het feet alone. Jaune watched her closely, eyes narrowing in concern as she staggered briefly and coughed into one hand, her other hand clutching her chest.

"Blake!" He urged as he reached for her, only to stop as she held her hand out in front of her.

"I'm fine." She gasped out as she seemed to right herself and stand a little taller. "Just a little… in pain, but fine."

"You're not alone there." Jaune griped back as he too slowly rose to his feet and took a moment to find his balance. Fortunately his weapons were still in place, it was probably lucky he'd thought to properly strap himself into his seat.

"My scroll is ruined." Blake sighed out as she tossed the ruined article onto the floor, the small piece of technology breaking into two pieces when it struck the ground. Jaune's eyes closed in frustration as he looked around the crash site. With no scrolls there would be no way for them to contact their teams, nor for their teams to use the scrolls to locate them.

"I wonder if the Bullhead has any comms… oh Gods, the pilot!" How could he have forgotten? The cockpit had apparently been the first part of the Bullhead to strike the ground, digging into the ground before crashing into a thick trunk. The door refused to move as Jaune pressed the keypad, the battery on the vehicle no longer operating. Thankfully the window had exploded in the crash, so he was able to scramble over the front to see into the cockpit.

"Ah shit…" Jaune whispered as he met the wide open eyes of the pilot, his face almost blank as he stared on in death. It was hard to see what had caused his death… the impact, or the glass embedded in his neck and chest. Jaune hoped it was the former. Just so it had been quick.

"I guess he didn't make it." Blake commented from behind him, causing Jaune to rear backwards in surprise as he slipped off the prow of the Bullhead, his backside striking the ground with a painful thump. The black-haired girl's face was blank as she looked at the pilot, a small sigh escaping her being the only sign of being affected by the dead man. A moment later the girl leaned over and reached into the cockpit, rummaging around inside the cockpit. "Comms are down."

"D-does he have a scroll?" Jaune gulped out as he climbed to his feet and did his best to rein in his emotions. Now wasn't the time for panic, was it?

"Can't tell." Blake answered as she hopped off the vehicle and walked up to stand in front of him, her eyes scanning the treeline for any threats. "His legs have been crushed by the crash… I couldn't even see below his waist."

"Well this is messed up." Jaune offered uselessly as he followed her vision to stare at the trees around them. There weren't any sounds or signs of animals around them, but most had probably fled at the first sign of them crashing down.

"I think we should move…" Blake murmured after a pregnant pause.

"Shouldn't we stay here so the others can find us easier?" He argued as he looked up towards the dark sky. The Bullhead had created a break in the canopy when it crashed down, and while there wasn't any smoke coming from the wreckage the signs of entry would be obvious come the morning. If they went deeper into the forest then any Bullheads wouldn't be able to see them.

"I doubt they're the only ones looking for us…" The girl whispered as a loud howl sounded out over the night, the noise echoing over the trees long after it stopped. Jaune grimaced.

"I get your point." He whispered to her as he ran over to collect his backpack and sling it over his shoulders. If they were going to be roughing it then he was going to have what supplies he could. It was a shame he hadn't thought to bring a spare scroll or some way to contact people. The problem was also that without their scrolls, it was difficult to monitor their own aura levels. They could feel their aura to a degree, but it was more a sense of rough estimates. Was their aura full, about half or really low? That was all they could accurately figure out. Low would be the best way he could describe his own. With the word "dangerously" added on for safety.

"We should head East, at least in the general direction of Vale." Blake whispered as she made her way past him, apparently having figured out the direction as Jaune scrambled to follow her. She didn't have a backpack of her own, and considering her slow pace Jaune wasn't going to comment on it. "Any search teams will have pulled away for the night. If we can get closer then find a hill or meadow to stake out during the day, then we should be okay."

That made sense, Jaune admitted. What's more if they found a safe place to sleep then they could look to recover their aura levels a little bit. And if they were able to top themselves up, or at least get halfway then the forest would become a lot less dangerous.

"Alright, you lead I guess."

Two hours had passed at least since they began their trek through the forest. In complete silence they had travelled, broken by the occasional grunt of effort as they scaled rocks and logs, or muttered curses as stinging plants caught exposed skin. Jaune's blue eyes had been increasingly fixed on the young woman ahead of him, and not in the way he might have expected given that they were alone in a forest together.

Blake… wasn't well. She was keeping quiet about it and soldiering on in stoic silence, but Jaune could see the small signs that she was fighting with something. Small, muffled coughs, despite the clean night air, or the way she would pause at a tree every now and then for a brief rest. Not to mention her left hand occasionally reaching up to rub at her breasts – he had noticed that every time she did it, and felt a little guilty for it.

He hadn't yet made any move to interrogate her over the fact. Firstly, because their lives were still on the line, and what did a little discomfort matter in the short run? But also out of a desire not to upset who was literally the last person in the world to him right now. The last thing he needed when trapped alone in a Grimm-infested forest was to have a bad relationship with his only hope.

But something would have to give eventually… Jaune just hoped it wouldn't be Blake.

There hadn't been any sign of rescue in those two hours as the moon rose higher in the sky. Jaune refused to give up hope however, trusting in Blake's analysis that the search teams would just be waiting for daylight to begin once more.

He did idly wonder how the others hadn't found them immediately at the crash site, surely they had seen the Bullhead crash down? But then the same could be said of the Ursa at Elgard, Grimm might be mindless in a certain sense, but they had eyes and could see where someone had disappeared from view… Had the others done something to stop the Grimm chasing after them? Another concern was simply that they didn't know how long they'd been unconscious for… sure it was dark now, but it was getting closer to winter so what did that even mean. Midnight? Seven in the afternoon? Had they been unconscious for a full day?

_It's pointless thinking about it to be honest…_ _We just need to find somewhere safe to sleep so we can recover our Aura a little. Then we can either await rescue or just walk back to civilisation._ Jaune had the rations for a week or so of food in his backpack, and they weren't _that_ far out into the wilderness.

"We looking for anything in particular?" Jaune asked as a branch whipped back towards his face, idly he considered his first time in the Emerald Forest as he dodged what would have been a nasty sting. Turns out he'd grown enough that he could even avoid the vicious attacks of foliage now, _yay for me._

"I'd hoped we could find a cave." Blake sighed back as she stopped, letting him come up beside her. There were shadows around her eyes from exhaustion, and her breathing was even more uncertain than he had previously thought.

"There are no mountains here Blake, or even hills… I don't think we'll find any caves." All the maps they'd been given of the area showed that Elgard had been founded in a wide expanse of flat land… so it could expand if things went well. Hadn't she looked at the maps?

"Fine." She gritted out as her eyes closed in frustration, or perhaps anger. He'd just _known_ he would irritate her sooner or later. "Just… find somewhere then."

_Okay. Fine then… place the responsibility on me, that's cool I'm a leader… Shit…_ He knew nothing about camping beyond how to set up a tent and a few tricks to help keep fires burning. Growing up with seven sisters hadn't exactly prepared him for roughing it in the wild. Maybe if he'd been a single child his father might have taught him something… but their parent's attentions had always been spread between eight children.

Still, Beacon was a school for hunters, and even as bad as a student he was – he had still picked some things up. _Shelter, water, food, safety._ His mind reeled off as he looked around where they currently were. He had food enough for a few days in his pack, and his water canteen was still full – that would really need refilling tomorrow, but would be more than enough for tonight.

Safety… well, that would have to come with shelter really. If he could find someplace out of sight then they should be able to avoid any prying Grimm. Idly his eyes looked up towards the treetops, before dismissing the idea. They didn't have the supplies to make hammocks or anything, and he didn't know the slightest about camping in trees.

_Then again…_

"We should camp inside a tree." He exclaimed as he pounded his fist into his own palm. Beside him Blake let out a sigh.

"I don't think we'll be able to climb these-"

"No, Blake. _Inside_ a tree. We'll find a hollow trunk and set up inside." He'd seen plenty of trunks with huge cracks and gaps in them while he was younger, they had been favourite places to hide when his family would play hide and seek. When he was younger they had seemed so large and cavernous, so surely even now two adults could fit inside?

"Wouldn't that mean we can't make a campfire though?"

"I don't dare make one anyway… the ground's too flat, the Grimm would be able to see the light from a fire for a long distance." They would just have to rough the cold night as best they could.

"… Okay…" Blake let out after a long pause, her hand coming up once more to rub her right breast with a grimace. Jaune turned away in slight embarrassment as he started looking at the trees near them. Sure, dead trees tended to have more cracks and hollows in them, but that was asking for trouble. It would be best if they could find a living one that had grown _around_ something that left the gap.

"Are you okay to keep moving while we look Blake?" He asked, letting her know that he _had_ in fact paid attention to her health.

"Of course." She simply muttered as she walked past him once more, dismissing the question without honestly answering it.

It didn't take them long to find a suitable trunk to hole into. Barely fifteen minutes of scouting around their current location provided a huge tree with a small round hole leading inside of it. It wasn't the triangular entrance he was used to seeing, but instead looked like it had once been made by some kind of animal. It had long since been deserted however, and the space inside had grown along with the tree.

It would be a tight fit, almost uncomfortably so. But by having a round hole that was a few inches off the floor they could remain dry if it rained during the night. There would be no laying down inside of there, but two people could sit next to one another and be able to prop their legs up against the trunk wall to rest. Plus with the tree still being alive and healthy there wasn't much chance of accidents happening. Their biggest problem would be insects, and there was little they could do about that without a fire.

"Looks cramped." Blake commented from behind him as he clambered into the nook and shifted his shoulders so he was at least somewhat comfortable. A few quick seconds rummaging in his backpack brought out a thick blanket for them to use.

Blake gingerly climbed in after him, the two of them uncomfortably shuffling around inside in a pointless effort not to get in the other's way. Intellectually Jaune knew they were going to have to sleep with one another, and he was sure Blake did as well. But he wasn't willing to broach that topic, and it seemed she wasn't either.

Instead the two of them continued to try and find positions they could sit in, Jaune shivering slightly whenever Blake's legs brushed against his own. In the end, Blake sat down against the trunk with her knees drawn up to her chest, her shoulder stiffly against his own as he sat with legs bent and resting against the opposite trunk.

The two sat in silence for a few minutes, both facing the entrance to their hiding hole, the moonlight shining through illuminating their cramped positions. There was a stiff breeze outside, and it felt a little wet as well, a clear indication of coming rain. That would be a blessing and a curse in different ways. With the stiff breeze and cold rain the night would be a very chilly one to brave without a fire. On the other hand, the noise and visual impairment of the rain would make it very unlikely that any Grimm would stumble upon them.

Jaune wasn't sure how _negativity_ worked… not in the sense of drawing Grimm, but it obviously wasn't an instant thing that could give them away – or it would be impossible for a hunter to sneak up on a Grimm, which he _knew_ was possible. Likely negativity was something that grew over a long period of human habitation. The only way the Grimm would find the two of them here was through scent, vision or hearing. All of which the rain would muffle. The downside was obviously that they might end up dying of hyperthermia.

"We need to cover the entrance or we'll freeze." Blake mumbled from beside him, not moving from her protective ball of heat as her bright amber eyes stared into him. Clearly she expected him to come up with a solution since this was his idea in the first place.

_Not that Blake could offer anything since she doesn't have her backpack… _ His own supplies were somewhat limited, but he did have a spare set of clothes along with a thin towel for bathing. It was a simple job to use two small knives he kept in his bag as pins and hook the towel up above the entrance, letting it fall down and cover the gap. The towel flapped slightly, but resting Crocea Mors on the bottom as a counter weight kept it still. A thin amount of light still shone through, but at the very least the wind was gone.

"That's the best I can do, though I've got a spare hoodie if you want it?" It felt strange to offer his clothing to someone else, but Blake's arms were bare and she would lose a lot of heat like that.

"Thank you." The girl replied as she took the offered garment and struggled her way into it, the enclosed space offering little room to stretch her arms through the sleeves. It was hard to figure out if Jaune felt subtly pleased, or amused, as he looked at the beautiful girl wearing his spare hoodie. The garment was a little long on her, and only her fingers poked out of the sleeves, while the hem reached down to the top of her thighs. Blake kept the hood up, eager for whatever warmth she could gain, and she looked faintly adorable huddled up like that.

There was also a bit of a strange thrill seeing her wearing his clothing like that too, a strangely intimate feeling that he did his best to shake off. _Typical hormones acting up in like the worst situation, ever._

Ignoring the feeling he settled himself back down against her, this time the both of them feeling more at ease. As though the hoodie itself was somehow a barrier that made touching safe.

Taking the thick blanket in one hand he offered the other end to Blake, so she could adjust it to cover herself as he did on his own side. It was only the size of a single person, but since they were bent double inside the tree anyway, they just laid it across themselves sideways, so it was longer across than it was in length. Blake shuffled slightly as she tucked one end beneath her before letting out a sigh of relief.

"This is pretty awkward, eh?" Jaune spoke after a pregnant pause as he looked at the towel which had ballooned inwards from the wind, but showed no sign of giving way. There was another long pause from the both of them before Blake shook slightly. Jaune smiled and muffled his own snort of amusement, which seemed to be the last straw for Blake as she broke into quiet laughter. Jaune echoed it, the two of them somehow both amused by such a stupid comment.

"Well done Captain Obvious." Blake joked once they had both calmed down. Despite her words she seemed more relaxed as well, leaning her shoulder more naturally into him. He didn't know if it was for heat or comfort, but either way he didn't comment on it. Hormones aside, Blake was soft and warm, and the tree was _not._

"It's the Arc charm." He quipped back as he too let out a long breath and relaxed, tense muscles loosening as he shuffled slightly to get comfortable.

"I can see that." Blake replied, her tone laced with friendly sarcasm, "I have to wonder how you're still single."

"Tried fixing that." Jaune paused as he stifled a yawn. "Ren turned me down though."

"Idiot." Blake laughed at his joke. Jaune mused to himself that when your life was at risk, even the weakest of jokes seemed amusing. Perhaps it was an instinctive desire to find comfort wherever you could, or to distract yourself. They said laughter was good for the soul, and even your own health; physical and metal. "Hey Jaune?"

"Yeah?"

"If you ever want to talk about what we saw in that basement, you can talk with me." The words were delivered so quickly it was like a slap to his face. Waking him instantly as he blinked twice in confusion before the meaning caught up with him. Gods, why did she have to remind him of _that?_

"I'm fine, like I told Pyr-" He stopped as a hand pinched his leg painfully.

"I'm not asking if you're okay or not." Her tone was firm with him as she tilted her head to look straight into his eyes. "All I'm saying is that I experienced it with you. So if you ever want to talk about it, or just get it off your chest - You can talk to me."

"Do you normally pinch people's legs to get their attention?" The words slipped out of his mouth before he could stop them, and the girl blinked before laughing quietly to herself.

"Sorry, I'm partners with Yang. Sometimes violence is the only way to get your point across." Jaune laughed along with her as he imagined being partners with the blonde bombshell. Sure, it probably seemed like any guy's dream, but Yang was a force of nature. It kind of made sense that you had to work to grab her attention, Blake must have the patience of a saint, along with Ren. Was it something about having black hair?

Back to what she had said though… it was true that the sights he'd seen had been weighing on his mind, and while he'd been able to use it as fuel for his rage against the Ursa, now that they had calmed down and were trying to sleep the memories were flashing back into his mind. But what was the point peddling misery to other people? Sure, he could tell everyone that he was struggling, that the dreams plagued him and that he could imagine small children screaming when he closed his eyes. But what would sharing that _do_ for the others?

Make them look at him with sympathy? Or worse, cause them pain… distress that they could not help him with his problem.

"I want to get over it on my own." He said after a long wait, knowing that her words did require an answer and couldn't just be ignored. This wasn't Pyrrha, who seemed so worried about hurting his feelings that sometimes he could just bluster past her. "Yeah I still feel pretty bad about it, but I don't want to cause problems for everyone else by dwelling on it, okay?"

"That's fine." Blake answered instantly, surprising him that she would let him get away with just that. "I just want you to remember that I was there too, so nothing you say about it to me would cause me any more discomfort. So you can talk to me if you want to."

"Thanks…" Jaune mumbled, his voice full of emotion. Was this finally someone who trusted him on her own? Someone who didn't judge him because he wasn't as strong as everyone else, or as smart? This was probably the first time he could ever remember someone trusting him to handle a problem on his own, without forcing their aid on him.

"No problem." Her head rested on his shoulder gently for a few moments, and for the first time in possibly forever; Jaune understood a woman's gesture completely. It wasn't a romantic move, nor even for warmth. It was just Blake saying she would offer help if he wanted it. In response he rested his chin against her hair for a few short seconds before pulling back before it could become uncomfortable for her. Blake nodded once to him as she settled down to sleep, face tilted against the side of his arm as she pulled the covers up to her chin.

Jaune let his head fall back against the trunk as he closed his eyes, and for the first time since that night… dreamt a dream that was not full of blood.

* * *

><p>Blake's eyes snapped open in alarm as her body vibrated heavily from where she was slumped. Gaze flying about in alarm, she quickly recalled where she lay, with her legs tangled with Jaune's own warm limbs and her body pressed into his side in an unconscious effort to secure warmth. The blonde knight was still asleep, his breath coming out in gentle rasps, and for a moment she was amazed he could sleep through the noise and vibrations – before realising that she had herself for who knows how long.<p>

"Jaune! Jaune, wake up!" She hissed quietly as she shook him. Her chest was hurting again, worse than last time. She prayed it was just bruised, but there was no time to consider a worse situation.

"Blake?" Jaune mumbled in confusion before seeming to remember where they were. He yawned loudly as his arms stretched before he too felt the vibrations through the tree. "Wh-what?"

It was a gentle thrumming through the base of their tree, and in the distance strange sounds could be made out through the drizzling downpour. It was a constant and rhythmic sound, but clearly nothing manmade.

"I don't know. But we had best find out." Blake replied as she checked her weapons and gently peeled the towel away from the tree. It was soaked through, and would probably be abandoned by them as they left. Perhaps an animal might find use for it as nesting. Outside the morning sun was just beginning to peek through the rain clouds.

Without her scroll she couldn't check her aura levels, but they still felt unusually low, and her aching chest was a sure sign that she wouldn't have enough aura to fight. Lucky then, that her specialities laid in stealth just as much as combat.

"I guess." Jaune mumbled as he climbed out the tree first, his head looking both ways before pulling his body the rest of the way out. He didn't bring out his sword and shield, so she trusted it was safe and accepted his hand to help draw her out. She didn't make any move to offer his hoodie back to him though, thankful for the hood to keep her hair and ears dry from the rain. Maybe Ruby had the right idea adding a hood onto her outfit, this felt quite nice. It was also a pleasant surprise to find that despite its simple appearance, Jaune's clothing was actually really thick and soft – probably to act as protection against limited armour, so he wasn't uncomfortable if his armour got really cold.

"Follow me, but only come to me when I wave to you, okay?" She instructed him quietly. That way she could make sure it was safe before risking his lack of stealth due to his louder weaponry and armour. Thankfully the boy didn't argue in the slightest, his willingness to accept her suggestions something she was infinitely glad for. She supposed it was just another part of his _Arc Charm_ as he had jokingly put it.

From where she stood it was impossible not to hear the noise over the rain, and she doubted it was her sensitive faunus hearing that was giving her an advantage. The noise had silenced and scared away all other life, so the birdsong one might expect in the early morning was absent. Ducking and weaving her way through brushes, she made sure to stop every fifteen metres or so to wave Jaune to follow her. To his credit he held his armour and weapons tightly, minimising the noise they made.

They continued like that for a few more moments, stopping every now and then for Blake to listen carefully for any threats. As the noise became louder she gave up stealth, knowing that no amount of noise they could make would be audible over this racket. Instead she walked calmly forward, waving Jaune to follow her as she knelt at the edge of a thick set of bushes. Eyes glued to the incredible sight less than forty metres from them.

"My Gods…" Jaune gasped from beside her, his body collapsing to one knee half out of shock. Blake's own eyes closed in frustration as her fingers curled into a fist.

Boarbatusk. Hundreds. No thousands, who could even tell anymore? In a column almost ten wide and possibly thousands deep they ploughed through the terrain like some kind of slow train cutting through a forest. Their pace was hurried, but certainly not at their usual charging speed. Instead they methodically marched, churning through grass and ground until their column was marching through little more than a muddy, ruined, trench. It was the exact same as what they had seen before with the Beowolves.

The reason the ground was so ruined, was because there were just so _many_ of them. Thousands of hooves and feet stamping and twisting the ground beneath them was demolishing grass, and killing plants.

"I-I don't understand." Jaune stammered once more, turning to her in that way he did when he desired answers, and yet she had none for this. "Grimm don't gather like this!"

"I know." Blake answered as she slumped back against a tree trunk, the pain in her chest as much in her heart now as anything else. The overwhelming sight was just so very morale crushing – how were they supposed to face that many Grimm? "Grimm congregate in small packs, sometimes even herds, but we've never seen anything on this scale before."

"Don't they only stay in packs in their own territory though?" Jaune asked as he settled next to her, their backs to the Grimm as the column continued to march by. "I know Grimm are attracted to negativity, it's usually single Grimm drawn in, then they band together into packs right?"

"As far as we know." Blake agreed. "Sometimes they travel in packs, but it never really holds. Grimm intelligence is little more than instinct, so if they travel in a pack then single Grimm keep wandering off until the pack breaks down into a spread out bunch of single Grimm."

"None of them are breaking off, even when the ground is so ruined that it must be difficult to walk on. It's like humans marching in column." An apt comparison, she thought to herself cynically… and that raised another scary comparison. Humans marched in those formations when they were doing one thing… preparing for war.

"Grimm intelligence shouldn't allow for this." She argued. "I know some animals have migratory instincts that keep them in herds, but we've got records of Grimm dating over a hundred years. We would _know_ if they had migratory patterns." It just made _no_ sense whatsoever.

"Hey Blake, look." Jaune urged, tapping her on the shoulder and drawing her attention back to the horde, for that was the only word to describe these numbers. As far as she could see there was no change, just the Grimm powering on.

"I don't see anything."

"No- I mean look. When you said migrating you got me thinking about cows travelling in groups. They always look so slow right, because they conserve energy? Look at the Boarbatusk. They're _rushing._ They're going faster than if they were just wandering somewhere." Her amber eyes narrowed as she considered his words, Jaune was right. Even the way they travelled, heads lowered forwards and not glancing left or right. They weren't even looking to see if any threats or prey were right next to them!

"It's… like they're running away… from something."

"Exactly!" Jaune agreed before pausing. "But what would scare the Grimm?"

"No idea, but they're heading East. At this rate they will hit Vale in a couple of weeks. We should get away and try to find somewhere to signal a Bullhead from." Thumping her chest once more at the pain, Blake let out a series of rasping coughs as she held her hands before her mouth.

"Good idea, we can…" Jaune's voice trailed off as he stared at her. Not that she noticed, because she was too busy looking down at her cupped hands. And the thin splattering of blood on her palms. That wasn't good. A quick glance at Jaune told her that yes he _had_ noticed, and no she _couldn't_ hide this and carry on. "Blake." He hissed out in almost anger as he stalked towards her, grabbing her wrist in a painful grip.

"What is _this!?_" His anger was palpable, and she shivered slightly in his grip as he looked at her palms. She knew a rhetorical question when she heard one, and it seemed that once again Jaune's weak-willed side had been replaced by the leader – and she didn't want to argue with _that._

"How long have you been coughing blood!?" He interrogated as he stepped into her guard, making her look up uncomfortably to meet his eyes. Damn, he was actually pretty tall when he stood up straight, she thought to herself. Oh, the question?

"This is the first time." She answered honestly, but not mentioning that she had feared her chest was badly injured since the crash. "Please Jaune, I would have told you if I had thought it was this bad, I _swear_." The words seemed to calm him down as he released her hand, placing another on her shoulder.

"Okay, but Blake please. You have to let me know if you're hurt. We're stuck in this together and we can't afford to be keeping silly secrets from one another." He delivered the words in a calm and comforting voice as he apologised, but it made her feel incredibly guilty. Here she was compromising their very survival because she had wanted to keep the injury to herself – even if her motives had been to ensure they kept up a good pace to escape.

"Sorry, I'm not used to working so closely with people." He nodded his acceptance as he walked away, leaving her to follow. Idly she wondered if her words were an indirect insult to her real partner. Yang. But the two of them were so used to doing their own things in combat, and their style was often incompatible with one another. This was honestly the first time she had ever been in a situation where she had to 100% rely on someone else for her survival, and it wasn't even with the partner she had lived and trained with for so long.

"I don't think we can do anything for what's wrong with you. But you're not fighting if we can help it, and if you need a rest please let me know. No pushing on and making this worse."

"Yes." _Sir_ she added to herself mentally as the comparison to a military commander she had made to Yang the other day came back to her mind. It seemed that when he let his emotions dictate his actions, Jaune actually became a very competent leader, and it made her wonder if Ozpin had somehow known this when he selected him. Was it something on his records?

They carried on in silence for a few more minutes, the sounds of the Grimm becoming less obvious as they increased the distance between them. Jaune's shoulders were ramrod straight, causing Blake to sigh. He was angry with her… Why was it that just after she had managed to get him to open up last night, she had inadvertently caused him to shut himself off once more? Was she really _that _bad at making friends?

It had never been something she had dealt with before her time at Beacon. Sure, she had her team as close friends, and their relationship had only become better since they found out she was a faunus. But she hadn't done _anything_ to help that. She'd cussed out Weiss on day one, abandoned Ruby, took the piss out of them when they interrupted her as she read.

Yang had dragged her into friendship kicking and screaming. It was a foregone conclusion to Yang that her partner would be her friend, you didn't argue with her. With Yang came Ruby, both as her sister and their shared leader. Blake had bonded with Ruby partly because the girl was adorable, but also because supporting her antagonised Weiss, the hated Schnee.

Then when her heritage had been found out… Had she talked to them, admitted her hesitation and explained her reasons… of course not, she fled, _again. Always fleeing, always running away from everything A coward.._ She didn't fight, not like Yang or Ruby did, or even Jaune. She hid and snuck about in the darkness before killing enemies who weren't even aware she was there.

In the end it had been Weiss who had offered the olive branch, _Weiss_ who had made efforts to change and improve herself. And here she was, the same as she had ever been, surrounded by friends not through her _own_ actions. But because her team was willing to make sacrifices _for_ her… rather than ask her to change.

"I didn't want to be a burden." She suddenly spoke out as she stopped in place. Refusing to move, even as Jaune continued another ten paces. She would not be denied this. It was time to make a stand.

In the end he did stop. Perhaps he realised she would not give up, or maybe he wanted to face this head on too. Instead he walked back to her, stopping a few feet away.

"I should have told you I was hurt." She admitted with a frown as she stared into his blue eyes. "But I didn't want to cause a hassle, I'm a burden while injured." She would drag him down, reduce the ground they could cover. She didn't have to know Jaune well, to know he would risk his life for her – he had done it once already!

"You're not a burden." He started, before she interrupted him, shaking her head.

"I _am!_" She argued. "With this injury… You'd slow your pace, try to force rests on me. We'd be stuck here longer, you'd go hungry! There is a marked increase in the risk of us being killed, by my being injured." She delivered her argument in a clear, almost mathematical, manner. Giving examples to explain every point she made so he could understand just how much of a burden she was right now.

"Don't be stupid!" He shouted back as he waved one arm for emphasis. "You're the smart one here, normally anyway. Without your brains I'd have no plans or idea how to get out of this. Plus your stealthy enough to lead us away from danger. Even injured, you contribute more than me."

Typical, stupid, _man!_ Why could he not understand how obvious this was?

"Intellect?" She drawled sarcastically as she looked around them. "Oh yeah that's really useful here. Maybe when we're about to starve to death I can recite the history of Fort Castle to you. Perhaps you'd like to hear the anatomical breakdown of a Nevermore!?" She was ranting now, tears gathering at the edge of her eyes as she continued to point out why he should abandon her, resent her. _Once more, I'm not strong enough to help anyone!_ She screamed in her own mind, thinking of the people she had failed to save from Adam. The people she had failed to save in Elgard. Seriously… even back at Beacon she had just watched Cardin bully a fellow faunus… was she _ever_ planning to step in and actually do something!?

Her thoughts were interrupted by another wracking set of coughs as blood once more bubbled up her throat and seeped past her fingers. The pain, both physical and emotional finally caused the tears to slip past her control and spill down her cheeks. _No!_ Her mind recoiled. _No weakness!_

"Blake…" Jaune whispered, suddenly too close as his arms wrapped around her form as she struggled to push him away. His grip tightened as he tilted his body so that her face was pushing into the cloth of his chest. As though her humiliation at losing control of her emotions was not bad enough, to be treated like a small child or helpless damsel was far worse.

"Let me go." She hissed out as she pushed at him, anger now replacing her pain as she squirmed in his grip. An analytical part of her mind snidely insulted her for being an emotional little girl, so keen to replace hurt with anger. Lashing out at people who just wanted to help.

"I will if you promise to let me talk for just two more minutes, okay? And I'll let this all go if you let me talk, okay?"

"Fine…" She whispered into the fabric of his chest as he continued to keep her trapped.

"Right… okay, well I'm not good with words. I think I'd be dead if it wasn't for you being here." She made to argue but he tightened his grip and shushed her. "I've been trying so hard to not give up, to keep going on. And the only reason I've been putting all this effort in, is because I'm scared of failing you."

She stilled at his words, the fight going out of her as her fingers gripped at his sleeves. Her eyes closed as she leaned her forehead forward to rest on his breastplate.

"I'm terrified of messing this up and costing you your life. So I've found energy where I thought I had none, where I'd probably have just given up and laid down if you weren't here. I'm exhausted, but I'm able to keep going on because of you. Maybe it's Elgard, maybe it's just me wanting to be able to help just a single person. But I think it's because you're my friend Blake, and I want to get you home, to our other friends. Then I'll be able to rest."

As promised he released her, arms peeling away to let her escape. She did not. Gods, his words... How terrifying to imagine if he was telling the truth. Emotions already frayed from sadness, then anger and now running the entire spectrum to elation and embarrassment, her mind was running wild.

There were no words she could give however, and instead just hugged him tightly once, pressing her face into his neck, before climbing to her feet and turning away so she couldn't see him. _Good job Blake… you certainly didn't make a fool of yourself there._

"Can you not tell anyone we just did that." She spoke quietly after a brief pause. Her voice was under control as she wiped her cheeks on the sleeve of the hoodie he had lent her. Eyes dry once more she looked up towards the morning sky before sighing and turning to face him, her usual expression back in place. Sometimes just hiding the evidence was enough to make everything okay, she would cling to that ideal.

"Sounds good to me." Jaune joked back with an easy smile. "Ready to get out of here, partner?" He held a hand out to her and she walked past it ignoring the gesture but making sure to give him a laconic sideways smile as she passed him to show she was teasing him.

"Don't let Yang hear that, or Gods forbid – Pyrrha."

"Huh, why Pyrrha?" Jaune asked in confusion as Blake walked past rolling her eyes. Seriously, that much naivety should be dangerous to his health. _Would_ be, if he ever got a crush on someone other than Pyrrha.

Any further conversation was brought to a halt by a distant, familiar noise, sounding far above them as a dark shape shot across the sky. Jaune's eyes met Blake's as the two of them watched a Bullhead fly by.

"Damn it, we need to catch their attention!" Jaune hissed as the two of them began running in the direction it had gone. Her own breath was soon coming out in ragged gasps as she held the left side of her chest in distress.

"Do you … have a flare!?" She shouted out between deep breaths, to her disappointment he shook his head.

"No, I didn't think to. I'll pack some next time… I have the lighter though, we need to find somewhere to make a signal fire." She nodded in agreement, her mind racing as she thought on how to gather their attention.

"Wet wood produces thick smoke. If we burn some wood in this rain it should make dark smoke." He nodded in response as he looked up at the sky, her eyes following. There was a gap in the canopy that would be wide enough for smoke to pass through, though not for the Bullhead to actually land.

"Right, I'll get the wood here." He slung off his backpack and threw it to her. "You get a fire going!"

She dug into his backpack as he sprinted to nearby trees, using his sword to break down branches. Clothing, mugs, a water canteen… it took her more effort than she expected to find a tiny lighter in the big pack, but eventually her fingers closed on the small plastic dust-filled container.

It was difficult to get the spark going in the drizzly rain, and her frustration mounted quickly as she constantly struck the lever while shielding the ignition point with her hands. Jaune continued to pile small amounts of twigs before her as she nursed the growing flame amongst the branches.

"Come on… come on…" She urged the ember as it weakly began to lick at the wet wood. Blowing gently on the flames caused them to flicker and bloom slightly. Already there was a small wisp of dark grey smoke coming from the wood that would hopefully soon be visible when it reached above the canopy.

"I've got an idea." Jaune offered, taking the lighter from her before bringing it against the metal plate on his gloves with a resounding crack. Moving his hand aside he let the dust inside the lighter fall directly into the fire as Blake's eyes widened. She was able to throw herself to the side just in time, as the fire roared angrily to life, pushing Jaune back as he landed on his rear with an exclamation of shock.

"Idiot!" Blake called out to him without any heat as she climbed to her feet and walked back to the healthy fire that was belching foul-smelling smoke. Trust him to be just like Ruby when it came to not knowing just how dangerous loose dust could be. But he had managed to get the fire going so she would let it go.

Digging back into the backpack she brought out the blanket they had shared just a few hours before and began waving it over the fire, catching the smoke for a few seconds before releasing it. The result was regular spots of dark smoke billowing upwards in a rhythmic fashion. Hopefully anyone who saw them would realise such things couldn't appear in nature and investigate.

"We just have to wait now." Blake coughed out past the smoke and her own chest pain. Jaune made to take the blanket from her but she pulled it out of his reach. "You're the combat ready one Jaune, I can't have you getting tired waving a blanket around if Grimm show up!" He stared at her for a moment but nodded and backed away, accepting her honest reasoning. Even if this caused her problems, she needed Jaune to be fit if any Grimm came to investigate the smoke.

"At least have a drink." He asked as he held out his canteen to her, which she gratefully took a long drink from. A few last drops fell onto her tongue as she looked at the empty container with regret. Either way this would be their last attempt at escape it seemed.

Sighing she went back to waving the blanket over the fire, making sure to drag it through the air a good height above the fire so that she smoke could coalesce before being released, and that the blanket didn't catch fire. A forest fire would be an ironic way to catch their attention.

"Looks like we've got a customer." Jaune sighed from behind her, making her pause in excitement before realising it was a single Beowolf he was referring to, the large creature snuffling the air as it looked at them, before snarling.

"Can you handle it?" Blake asked as she went back to the fire. It was incredible to think that last night this creature could have been a threat to them… even with her chest pain, and whatever it might end up being – she had recovered enough stamina to kill a single Beowolf, and Jaune had probably recovered more than her.

Jaune didn't bother responding to her, but the sound of metal cutting into flesh told her he had charged and dispatched the Beowolf before it could make to attack them. Despite the small danger it presented, it did suggest that the Grimm were taking notice of the strange phenomenon… if they came in larger numbers then they might be in danger once again. _A shame Grimm aren't afraid of fire like most animals…_

"Just focus on the fire!" Jaune called to her as he stepped away from the fallen Beowolf which was beginning to smoke. Nodding, she went back to the fire as Jaune started to circle the area, cutting down bushes so he would have more vision of approaching enemies. A good idea for a man who needed a little more time to engage the enemy than she would, he was cutting off the ways the Grimm might be able to sneak close or catch them off guard.

A few more minutes passed as Blake's arms burned with fatigue. She had reduced the speed at which she waved the cloth over the fire to better maintain her stamina. To a woman who was used to fighting for long periods, it was disheartening to feel so tired from so little effort.

Another growl from behind her was snuffed out of existence as Jaune stepped in to dispatch another Beowolf. It seemed they were attracting nothing but stragglers who were separated from the pack. Why was it then that the Boarbatusk were so keen to stay in formation… while the Beowolves were spreading out more loosely? Had the Beowolves lost their cohesion upon attacking Elgard?

Would the same have happened to the Ursai who had attacked them?

Another cough escaped her as a few specks of blood floated visibly in the air. She wasn't choking on blood, or drowning either. So she didn't think she had a pierced lung, but there was definitely something causing her trouble, and Jaune was probably right – she had made it worse by ignoring it. She would need to make Beacon aware of this, especially if they intended to send them out on more missions.

None of that would happen though if they couldn't gain any attention, she thought angrily as she intensified her motions in silent frustration. Like Jaune said, next time she would bring more than flares – she would have a secondary scroll locked in a metal container!

"Blake, we've got trouble!" Jaune cursed from nearby as three large lumbering forms came through the treeline in front of her, making her swear to herself in silent rage. Ursa, two large specimen and one that seemed slightly larger with bone spikes on a ridge across its back.

Throwing the blanket aside, Blake struggled to her feet as she freed Gambol Shroud from her shoulder and broke it into two blades. She might not be at her best, but she would fight to the end if she damn well had to!

"Think we can take them?" Blake whispered to Jaune as he came to stand next to her, the two of them making sure to place themselves between the Ursa and the fire, partly to hurt the Grimm's vision – but mostly just to protect their only hope of escape.

"Of course." Jaune quipped back, though she could tell from the look on his face that he didn't believe they could.

She didn't either.

_Here lays Blake Belladonna and Jaune Arc, killed hundreds of Grimm, died to three Ursa…_

That… didn't have the poetic ring that Blake hoped her death would have had, a death she had expected to come about much later into her career as a Huntress… Maybe when she actually _became_ a Huntress officially…

"Charge?" She asked as she looked at her partner, while he grinned back and placed his shield in front of himself.

"It's our best shot, run behind me, flank them while I distract." He didn't wait for her answer but ran forward, with her keeping in his shadow as she charged to what was likely to be their final engagement.

Which was why it was somewhat surprising when Jaune stopped suddenly, providing no warning as Blake crashed into his back and bounced off his stronger frame to land painfully on her rear. Rather than get angry, Blake looked around Jaune's legs to see an unusual sight.

Standing in front of them, halfway between the two Grimm and themselves was a tall dark skinned man with reddish hair, arms slack at his sides, with two wickedly curved blades following the contours of each arm. His head was tilted backwards, a single eye watching them while his other remained on the Grimm.

Before they could even ask who it was, the man flew into motion, appearing in front of the middle Grimm before it could even react, and spinning in place, cutting across its eyes. As the Ursa reared back in pain, the man ducked under its exposed guard and cut a large cross into its chest, before driving the spiked pointed end up into the throat.

The other two Grimm roared angrily and made to engage him, only to strike each other as he flipped above their heads and struck down, decapitating them both in a single elegant move.

_I could have done that if my aura was full…_ Blake thought to herself petulantly, before shaking her head. This entire day was turning into an emotional rollercoaster, could the world just decide if they were saved or dead, and move on thank you very much!

"Where did you come from!" Jaune gasped out as he too fell onto his rear, pointing at the dark skinned man. The man turned to face them, his face cocked to one side as he pointed a finger upwards. Blake followed his digit to the canopy, where a Bullhead was hovering protectively.

"I saw that!" A female voice shouted out as a well-dressed young woman was slowly lowered down on a cable wire, one foot in a stirrup, while her hand held the main line. The sunglasses covered face of Coco stared down at them. She addressed them conversationally; as though a Bullhead lynch wire was her main method of transportation, and this was just another day in the office.

"Last charge, very heroic, planned to go down fighting." She hopped off the wire as she approached them, one hand on her hip while the other shook a finger in front of her face. "_Not_ when I have six hunters–in-training bitching to me every two minutes to ask if I've found their lost team mates yet. No _fucking_ way."

She came to a stop in front of them both, while they still sat on the floor, arms behind themselves for support, and half amazed, half confused expressions on both their faces.

"You two are going home, if only to _shut up_ your annoying team mates – so that I can get some sleep! Fox. Good hustle, I dread to imagine what would have happened if these two had been bruised. The red midget might have become even louder."

_Ruby? God Bless…_ Was the only thought that went through her mind as she continued to stare at the anomaly standing above them.

"Time to go home." The dark-skinned man said simply as he walked up to the two of them with the wire cable in hand, a small smile on his lips.

Blake didn't think she had ever heard such beautiful words.

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><p><strong>Here we go. There were feels. Some people might have seen Blake as being incredibly OCC in this chapter, but I hope I accurately explained her mental state in this chapter. I drew on the uncertainties she showed in the Mt Glenn episode, while having her make the same realisations in a serious LIFE OR DEATH situation – so her emotions and stress levels were about a hundred times higher. <strong>

**What does that lead to? Emotional Breakdown. **Yes ladies, gentlemen, and the one reader from Taiwan... an emotional breakdown in BLAKE of all people. Made sense to me since she seems to be the most likely to keep her emotions locked away. ****

**Why is Jaune more competent? Well if you think of the end of series 2, that Ursa fight – that is like his first Grimm fight after Pyrrha's training. In this fic he popped that "Grimm killing cherry" in chapter 1. Since then he has had a few more fights, so he is starting to become a little more confident in his skills. **

**Hope you enjoyed, please feel free to leave a review. I'd be interested to see if anyone can see through the reasons for the Grimm movements, as I laid a few hints in this chapter. **

**Next chapter we're off back to Beacon for some R&R, and to let the plot develop a little. We'll have a lighter chapter or two while the teams recover.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Merry Christmas everyone! Here is my gift to you all.**

**As you may have heard/seen, I've released another fic into the RWBY-verse which I hope you will check out if you haven't already. It's a pure comedy-fic though, in an attempt to detox from the DRAMA in this one lol. It's called Professor Arc, I'm sure you can see it from my profile or similar. Either way, this will remain my MAIN fic.**

**Please don't worry about it interfering with this, as I have made a personal rule that I cannot update PA - Unless this is updated first.**

**This chapter feels a little short, but there was not much to say or do in it. Blake is injured and needs treatment, so couldn't have too much of it about her. Either way - Enjoy.**

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><p><strong>Beta: Super Saiyan Cyndaquill<strong>

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><p><strong>Chapter 9<strong>

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><p>Blake's fingers drummed impatiently on her upper thigh as she watched Beacon Academy come into focus through the porthole beside her head. The tall central spire gleamed against the sun which was just beginning to slowly descend from the sky towards the horizon. She wanted to leap to her feet and clamber at the ramp in readiness to be home, but was able to contain the impulse to the frantic tapping of her legs.<p>

Beside her Jaune was no better, one of his hands constantly reaching up to toy with his collar as his blue eyes looked unblinkingly past her. They were both ready to be home it seemed.

"Here we are kiddos." Coco shouted out over the loud noise of the Bullhead settling to a landing as the doors began to unlock and slowly open. "Thank you for travelling with CFVY air, in the future for all your getting lost in a Grimm infested forest needs. Choose a different team!"

Blake ignored the woman's ranting, which had been an almost constant companion as they travelled back to Beacon. Gratitude mixed with relief at still being alive was enough to push down her irritation. Just barely.

_Oh I'm sorry you lost sleep finding us, we were busy nearly dying!_

To Blake's surprise the first people to greet them as they staggered back onto solid ground was not their own teams, but a wide-set man with a short cropped hairstyle and a huge sword hilt visible over one shoulder.

"Found them." Coco chirped as she strolled casually down the ramp, heels clicking loudly against metal with each step. She came to a stop before the large man as he looked at her for a few seconds before slowly nodding.

"Fox spotted them and pulled some sweet moves. Now the little lambs are back we can finally get some rest." Another long silence as the man stood perfectly still before slowly lifting up one shoulder and letting it fall.

"I know, right?" The woman sighed. Somehow apparently understanding what was little more than a _bloody _shoulder movement in Blake's eyes. "Hey, team movie time?" Another long silence which after a full seven seconds of waiting was broken as a tiny smile came to the man's lips. "Awesome!" Coco crowed as she span on the darker skinned male of her team. "Fox, find Velv. It's movie time, tell her if she's late we'll bar romance movies for a month."

Blake watched in silent bemusement as the one called Fox dashed away while Coco and the heavyset male of their team walked away, one of them chatting animatedly.

"Well. That happened." Jaune mumbled from beside her as she shook her head. Were they the only sane ones in this damn place?

"BLAKE!" A girlish voice screamed in a strange mixture of joy, excitement and worry as a red and black bundle slammed into being in front of her, hesitating with her arms held out in front of her, a look of worry on her face as silver eyes roamed up and down Blake's form. Blake couldn't stop the wide smile coming to her lips.

"I'm a little injured, but it'll be okay if you're gentle." She whispered to her young leader as the girl closed the final distance at a slower, less-semblance enhanced speed, and enclosed her in a hug. Thin arms reaching around her midriff to join at her back as the top of Ruby's hair tickled her chin.

"Well. Well, look what the cat dragged in." Yang's voice drawled as the rest of their two teams caught up with the speedy Ruby. "That's quite the fashion statement you're setting there Blake." The blonde finished with a leer as she joined the hug from behind, laying her face on Blake's shoulder so that their cheeks were touching, while her arms snaked around Blake's shoulders.

"Shut up, you." Blake whispered back as she closed her eyes and enjoyed the feeling of the two friends holding her. She felt one of her hands being taken and squeezed as well, and she made sure to curl her fingers round to tightly grip Weiss' hand as well. Gods, she hadn't realised how much she had missed them all – until she had nearly lost them.

Oh, she knew Yang wouldn't forget that she had arrived wearing Jaune's clothing, that would come back to bite her in time. But for now she would ignore the danger, and simply enjoy the love from her team mates.

She opened her eyes to look at her other survivor, interested to see if his own reunion would be as touchy as her own. Unsurprisingly, it was not.

Pyrrha rushed up to him before pausing as Ruby had, hands held out in front of her in a desperate desire to touch him and make sure he was okay – but she didn't have the bravery or confidence to do so. And unlike with Ruby, Jaune was too damn naïve to figure out what she wanted.

Nora had no such compunctions, darting past Pyrrha to latch onto Jaune's shoulders in a hug that looked more dangerous than any grappling attack. The orange-haired girl span Jaune in place as she hugged him, somehow ending up with her latched onto his back, with her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck – effectively riding him piggy-back, as she shouted greetings into his ear. Jaune bared it with the patience of a man who had clearly seen it all before, and smiled as he talked back to her.

Ren walked up slowly and did nothing more than pat Jaune on the back of his shoulder, some form of manly solidarity for those who just had too much Y chromosome to actually hug one another or show real emotion.

Despite the differences it looked like Jaune enjoyed the reunion as much as she did her own, smiling and talking animatedly as he finally drew Pyrrha closer, throwing an arm around her shoulder. Normally Blake thought Pyrrha would have been disappointed with the clearly _friendly_ gesture, but she seemed too relieved he was okay to comment, putting her own hand on his other shoulder.

"Did that ridiculous Arc look after you properly?" Weiss interrupted her thoughts as she spoke, causing Ruby to release her, though Yang refused to let go of her from behind. "I hope he didn't make matters worse."

The words were rude, but Blake knew the heiress didn't truly mean anything by it. In Weiss' eyes, Jaune clearly _was_ the weaker fighter when compared to Blake, so it made a certain logical sense that Jaune would have dragged her down. The truth was quite the opposite though.

"Jaune did well, it's no lie to say I would have died without him." Yang's arms subtly tightened around her shoulders at the words, and Ruby's eyes widened. Weiss looked Blake in the eyes for a few seconds before nodding.

"I'll make sure to thank him for protecting our team mate then." The girl acknowledged, before a frown came to her lips. "I just hope he won't try to demand a date out of me in return." Blake laughed in return, the gesture finally causing her body to fully relax in Yang's arms. It felt like such a long time since she had honestly laughed, not out of desperation like she and Jaune had in that tree trunk – but genuine laughter. It felt good.

In front of her Ruby seemed to be considering something internally. Her facial expression going through worry to nervousness to calm, then finally settling on determined. Blake's eyebrow quirked upwards as she watched the girl spin away from her before striding over to Team JNPR.

She couldn't hear what they were saying over the noise, but Jaune was smiling down at Ruby as they spoke, and the rest of team JNPR seemed to be smiling as they talked. No doubt Ruby was suiting Weiss' words into action and thanking Jaune herself. The man in question looked mildly uncomfortable, scratching the back of his hair in embarrassment even as Nora hung over his shoulders.

Which was why he couldn't do anything as Ruby reached up and pulled his face down by his cheeks, and kissed him quickly on the lips. Blake's eyes widened in shock, feeling slightly uncomfortable at witnessing the sight, even as Ruby ended the kiss after barely two seconds and rushed back to their team, hiding her embarrassed face in Blake's midriff once more.

"Huh…" Yang's voice mumbled noncommittally over Blake's shoulders, and she hoped the blonde would not overreact and attack Jaune – or throw Blake's injured form at the boy like some kind of ballistic missile.

Jaune looked about as shocked as Blake felt, one hand reaching up to touch his lips with red blooming across his cheeks. Beside him though, oh Gods that was a complicated expression on Pyrrha's face. A small smile, twisted in a way that suggested it was taking an enormous amount of effort to keep it in place. Hopefully they could all write that off as Ruby wanting to thank him… but what if she _did _have feelings for Jaune?

That would be… good, right? Jaune deserved to be happy. Sure Ruby was young, but she'd shown herself to be mature at times, and Jaune would be a good person to look after her. So Blake should be pleased if Ruby liked him…

_Enough. I'm not getting involved with Jaune's love life. That way lays madness._

"Ahem?" A voice interrupted as Glynda Goodwitch stepped before them, her presence luckily dispelling the tense air between the two teams and giving Ruby the distraction she needed to take attention away from what she had done.

"Though it's always a pleasure to see such heart-warming reunions. Professor Ozpin would like to meet with Miss Belladonna and Mr Arc to hear their report."

"Aw, but Miss Goodwitch, they just got back." Yang whined from over Blake's shoulder, drawing the uncomfortable ire of the stern disciplinarian their way.

"I was not asking, Miss Xiao-Long."

"No, wait!" Jaune interrupted as he broke away from Pyrrha and settled Nora down on her feet. "Blake's injured, she needs medical attention immediately."

"What!?" Weiss shouted, even as Yang and Ruby expressed their own immediate vocal concern. Internally Blake rolled her eyes, she could have handled a quick report to the Headmaster, she was sure of it.

"Is this so Miss Belladonna?"

"I should be good to report to the Headmaster, I will head to the medical bay afterwards." Miss Goodwitch spared her a glance, but nodded in agreement. However the resident blonde knight butted in once again.

"She was coughing blood and close to collapsing!" He argued as he waved his arm in her direction, somehow not noticing her frantically shaking her head. Damn it Jaune, she wanted answers on the Grimm movements from Ozpin!

"Very well." Miss Goodwitch finally intoned, cracking her crop against a nearby wall to bring silence to the group. "Miss Xiao-Long, _ensure_ that Miss Belladonna makes it to the medical bay immediately, she will be at risk if she convinces you to make a single detour. Mr Arc will follow me to see the Headmaster."

With that the woman span in place, walking away while Jaune jogged to catch up with her. Blake made to step after them, only to come to a resounding halt when Yang's arms turned to solid steel bands around her shoulders.

"You ain't going _nowhere_ kitkat. To the medbay with you."

_Damn it Jaune!_

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><p>Jaune sat tensely in the seat at the Headmaster's desk as he finished his report on what they had seen and experienced while separated from their teams. While Miss Goodwitch stood opposite him beside Ozpin's chair, the headmaster was instead stood staring out of the window with a mug of coffee. Despite the seeming lack of attention, Jaune had made sure to keep his eyes firmly on the back of the man as he spoke.<p>

"And then Coco and her teammate picked us up." He finished with a long sigh, glad to have done his fair share of the talking. It came to him at that moment that they had never been really told how to do reports, or even fill them in. Presumably they would have had those lessons after their first mission, if this crisis hadn't hit.

"I see Mr Arc. This is most distressing." The Headmaster didn't turn to him as he spoke, but did pause to take a long drink. "Still, it is heartening to see that you both returned safe, even if Miss Belladonna has been taken away for treatment."

There was another pause, but this time the man turned to face him, walking back to his chair and settling himself down slowly while he adjusted his scarf. Jaune stiffened in his seat at the attention the two teachers were giving him.

"You claim that the Boarbatusk looked to be... fleeing from something? Can you elaborate on this?"

"I thought they _looked_ like they were rushed. They weren't looking around where they were going, and were travelling at a speed that was actually quite fast. I'm not sure what the physical endurance of a Grimm is, but any normal creature would have collapsed after a day at that pace."

"Interesting..." The Headmaster trailed off as he clicked a few buttons on his desk-mounted computer. "Grimm do tire like any other creature, though it can take longer depending on what species they are. It is possible that you caught them at a time of high energy, perhaps after they had rested."

"That does not account for the numbers they saw them in." Miss Goodwitch interrupted. "How certain of the numbers are you Mr Arc?"

"Not at all." He honestly answered. "We must have seen almost two hundred in the time we were there, but the noise had been going on for a while before we found them, and they were still passing by while we left."

"Very disturbing." Ozpin broke in once more. "Numbers like this can, and will, pose a threat to the safety of all our civilians. We will pass this information on to the General, Mr Arc. Well done on a successful mission."

"Er, yeah sure." He stammered out, still sitting stiffly in his seat. "Sir... can you tell me what else has been found?" Both the teachers shared a glance before looking back at Jaune. "I don't mean any classified information... just the general overview of what's … gone on, while we were on our mission?"

"I suppose I could give you the bare basics." The Headmaster offered, while Jaune nodded and leaned forward. "Each of the villages that teams were sent out to were annihilated, with no survivors found. The attacks all show signs of Grimm, but of varying species."

"The military has mobilised and began a defence around the main towns of Vale, while Bullheads and older Hunter teams are doing their best to track the herds. Some small herds have been found and destroyed, yet we haven't been able to locate or isolate a group as large as the one you and Miss Belladonna have seen."

That was worrying... there was no telling how many hunters it would take to kill that many Grimm, though Jaune supposed it would all depend on what situation they were in when the two sides met. If the hunters could lure them into a trap, or some terrain that benefitted the humans, then it would be fairly easy. Boarbatusk weren't exactly good climbers with their bulk, so some rocky terrain and a few long range hunters with explosives or machinegun-type weapons could reap a bloody toll.

"Has anyone else found signs of Grimm in the numbers we saw at all?"

"Though there haven't been any sightings of Grimm in congregations so large, there are a few anomalies we were unable to figure out, which could be answered by columns of Grimm numbering in the hundreds." The man continued. "We'll now be looking back over them and considering if they were caused by a similar phenomenon to what you experienced. If they are, then the situation will be most troubling indeed."

"You think it might be an invasion don't you?" Jaune demanded as his muscles clenched in a combination of fear and anger. "Has... has there even been an invasion of Grimm before?"

"An invasion suggests an intelligence we have no evidence of believing the Grimm to be capable of Mr Arc. We tend to call them incursions, and they can be caused by aggressive attacks - or just unfortunate migrations. You might want to take a look at the history of Mountain Glenn, for an example of such."

So it _had_ happened before... which meant it could happen again. But also meant that they knew how to deal with it right? He would need to look up that name and see how Vale had solved the problem in the past and if they could do the same again.

"Now if you will tell me Mr Arc." The man continued, leaning forwards even as Jaune tensed and his right hand clenched. "Why you look prepared to attack me right now?"

"W-what?" He gasped out, leaning back in shock as he stammered out his denial.

"Your muscles have been tensing ever since you arrived, and you still have not let your guard down." The man continued. "Your unintentional aggressive stance has even set poor Miss Goodwitch on edge."

"That is hardly the case." The woman in question argued, but Jaune could see that he was right. She had looked subtly more intimidating and threatening, clear signs that she herself was preparing for possible combat.

"I do not believe you would attack me without cause Mr Arc, so must assume you haven't yet desensitised from your survival situation."

Was that the case? Was that why he was feeling so tense and jumpy, even when his team had welcomed him?

"Mr Arc, try something for me. I want you to take a deep breath and hold it, but do not release it until I tell you to." Jaune nodded nervously and did as the Headmaster asked, taking a big gulp of air and holding it as his cheeks puffed out. The seconds began to tick by as Jaune did his best to keep the air trapped in his lungs.

"Keep holding it." The man instructed as he stared into Jaune's eyes. "...A little longer."

Jaune gagged as the breath exploded from his mouth, his body sagging as he gasped for more air into his starved lungs. That bastard hadn't even told him to breathe again, but that had almost been a minute!

"There we go." The man smiled as Jaune spared him an evil glance and fought for more breath. He did feel less tense though, and was beginning to feel the actual ache and pain of his tortured muscles.

"Situations like your own are very common Mr Arc, do not worry." Miss Goodwitch stepped in as she helped Jaune climb to his feet and began to lead him from the room. "As you become more accustomed to missions and dangerous situations you will learn to adapt and calm down quicker. For truly harrowing events like what you and Miss Belladonna faced, it can often take a good night's sleep to truly ...switch off, as it were."

"I see." He simply agreed, nodding as he could finally feel the tiredness sweeping in. In retrospect it had been strange that he hadn't felt exhausted, considering that he and Blake hadn't had enough sleep at all - they must have been running on pure adrenaline alone. And their bodies had continued to supply it, even when they were safe.

"Do you mind if I go see if Blake is okay?" He asked once the two of them were back on the main Academy level. He had no idea if he was expected to return to lessons.

"You can do as you wish Mr Arc. Both your teams have been granted a week's leave to recover from your missions, and lessons are optional within that period. I would suggest after assuring yourself of Miss Belladonna's safety though, you get some food and retire for an early night."

"I will." He promised. "Thank you, Miss Goodwitch." And he meant it too, more than she might have understood from his words. The gruelling spars and training she had forced on them had probably saved his life back in Elgard.

Still, as he began to jog towards the medical bay, he couldn't stop his thoughts going back to his partner... or rather, the black-haired girl who had been his partner for the last thirty-six hours or so. It had made him so angry to not be able to deliver her to the medical bay himself, to make sure she was okay. And now he could recognise that anger as being just another part of the adrenaline that had coursed through him.

It was while he was approaching the medical wing that he ran into the rest of his team, the three of them seeming to be walking away from it when he almost rammed into them. Pyrrha seemed to start but managed to step aside, even as Ren calmly dodged. Jaune managed to bring himself to a stop before he crashed into Nora. The bubbly bomber simply having her arms wide open as though his near charge had been a tackle-hug or something. _She's been reading way too much manga._

"Sorry guys!" He apologised as Pyrrha smiled and moved closer to him again.

"No problem Jaune. How did your meeting with the Headmaster go?"

"Oh, it was fine. I was just telling him what happened while we were separated." He made to step around Pyrrha but instead found Nora in his way as she delivered a friendly, if painful, punch to his shoulder.

"Speaking of Jauney, you need to tell us what adventures you had as well!"

"Yeah, sure. You mind if I go see if Blake is okay though?" He huffed at the constant distractions. He just wanted to see if she was okay, then he could finally put the whole mission behind him, get some food and go to sleep!

"We've just been there, she had a chest injury that caused a lung problem. It's harmless but she needs to rest and has been anaesthetised." Ren summarised, much to Jaune's gratitude. "She has bruised ribs, and it caused Pneumothorax." He must have seen the blank look on Jaune's face because he sighed and continued. "It's where air gets trapped in the lungs, it can clear on its own but the constant fighting must have made it worse for her."

"Okay, that's good then. I still want to see her though, so I'll meet you back in our room, okay?" Once more he stepped past them to continue their journey, but was stopped when Pyrrha clamped a hand on his shoulder.

"You can see her tomorrow when she is awake Jaune, you need rest as well! I doubt you've even eaten!"

"I'll get some food on the way back!" He argued, his frustration mounting at the constant distractions, as well as them trying to keep him away from Blake. What the Hell was their problem!? "Is there some good reason you don't want me seeing Blake!?" He finally demanded angrily, taking a guilty satisfaction in the way Pyrrha reeled back as if slapped.

"Pyrrha is just worried about you Jaune." Nora defended the redhead. "We thought we were going to lose you so we want to make sure you're okay."

_And here comes the crushing guilt._ He thought to himself as his mood worsened. Of course they were worried about him, probably in the same way he was worried about Blake. So why couldn't they understand his desire to lay eyes on her and make sure she was okay? A niggling part of his mind also said they were worried about him because they didn't trust his skills. _Always Jaune getting injured, always Jaune needing to be looked after._

"I get that guys. And I swear I'll come back to our dorm after and you can freaking hand feed me or something. But I _need_ to make sure Blake is okay. Please?" The three of the shared a quick glance before Ren stepped closer to Jaune.

"As long as you keep your promise to get some rest. You need to relax, I think the mission is still affecting you." And the look in Ren's eyes made it clear what part of the mission he was referring to. "You're angry and tense, you _do_ need to sleep."

Jaune sighed and counted slowly to give, trying to force his muscles to relax once more. Gods, he was slipping into what he was terming "combat mode" once again. He hoped this wouldn't become a recurring thing - though as Miss Goodwitch had explained it, it seemed to be something that only really happened _after_ a particularly difficult mission.

"I know guys. The Headmaster saw it too, he just says I haven't recovered from the mission yet and am still in survival mode." His explanation seemed to be the wrong idea as Pyrrha stepped closer again, that mothering, concerned expression on her face once more. Gods he hated when she did that, why couldn't she look at him in happiness, or pride? Or anything other than a look that flat out told him she didn't trust him to be able to look after himself.

"Jaune, that sounds serious. It sounds like Post-traumatic stress disorder." At this he laughed while rolling his eyes.

"Guys, I do _not_ have PTSD! What the Hell!?" He'd been back for less than two hours and already they were diagnosing him as having lost his mind.

"I'm sure that's not the case." Ren interrupted, coming to Jaune's rescue. "PTSD is only diagnosed if the symptoms continues for more than thirty days. More likely it is as the Headmaster said, more along the lines of an anxiety disorder that will go away when his body finally accepts that it is safe. A fight or flight reaction."

"Which will happen sooner if you let me go check on Blake, then come back and sleep!" He finally shouted out, drawing the attention of other people passing by as his team froze. He was about to apologise before Pyrrha beat him to it.

"Jaune, I'm sorry." She apologised with a heart-breaking expression on her face. "You're right, I guess we just let our insecurities over losing you make us clingy... go do what you need to do."

_Hello guilt, my old friend..._

"Pyrrha I didn't mean it like that..." He hesitated, unsure how to get across that it wasn't _her_ he was angry at... "I promise I'll be like ten minutes, you can even wait here if you want, but I would _love you forever_ if you had food waiting for me at our dorm." Pyrrha nodded once in response, hopefully understanding his meaning as she stepped away from him.

"No pancakes this late, but we'll do our best!" Nora promised as she dragged Pyrrha away. Ren gave Jaune a single nod in goodbye as he strolled calmly after them.

_Gods, this is messed up._ He thought to himself as he pushed through the door to the medical bay. _So my team is worried about me... I can relate since it's the same as what I'm feeling for Blake. Yet I lashed out at them like an absolute bastard. I'll make it up to them somehow._

"Hey vomit-boy." Yang greeted as Jaune walked up the bed that Blake lay asleep in. She looked calm in her sleep, but there was a plastic tube going up her nose that caused a twinge of pain in his chest.

"Hey Yang. I heard she was okay?" He answered back. The blonde brawler shrugged her shoulders as she looked at Jaune.

"Yeah, trapped air in the lung. She just needs to let it drain out, the tube is just to make sure it continued to do so while she's asleep." That was good to know, though he couldn't imagine how intrusive that must feel. He hoped they had inserted it when she was already knocked out.

"Anyway, I heard what you were yelling out there. Pretty big claims."

"Ugh..." Jaune groaned out as he slouched down on a seat across from Yang, Blake kept between the two of them. Trust Yang to be able to tease someone even in a situation like this. Though considering the Blonde seemed to be staking her claim to sleep here all night, she clearly was just as worried as he was. Was teasing her coping mechanism, he wondered.

"Nah, don't worry about it Jaune." She waved it off. "I'll give you a free pass this time for helping out my partner. Besides... I can understand what you meant."

"Can you?" He asked, a small frustrated feeling welling up inside him at the constant attempts of people to understand what he was feeling.

"Sure can Jaune. You see... when I was younger, me and Rubes lost our mother." Jaune grimaced but didn't interrupt her as she spoke. "She just went for a mission and never came back. It was pretty tough."

She looked up at the ceiling as she spoke, an expression on her face that looked so out of character to her that it made him want to do something about it. Instead he simply sat and listened.

"I think Ruby was too young to really understand what was going on. But it was during that time that I found out about my real mother, who had gone missing before Dad and Summer even got together. I was so torn up, Ruby was distraught and Dad had just shut down. I thought that maybe if I brought my mother back, she could help him cope and be a mother to Ruby. Everything would be okay again, we'd be a proper family."

"I asked _anyone_ what they knew about her, and then one day I found a clue. Something I thought might lead me to my mother. So I put Ruby in a wagon and headed out into the forest to find this abandoned shack I was _sure_ my mother would be waiting for us at. Can you imagine it Jaune? A toddler in a wagon and a stupid girl too young to fight, too weak and tired to even call out for help in a Grimm infested forest?"

He could imagine it. The image it brought to him was similar to what he had imagined for those lost at Elgard. Except it wasn't some poor nameless child, it was a Ruby too young to understand what was going on. And Yang, young and foolish and distraught with grief.

"We might as well have been served up on a silver platter. And if it wasn't for my uncle having tracked us and saving us. Then I'd be dead. And worse, Ruby would be dead too. And it would have all been my fault."

"I'm sorry." He offered, unsure of what to say to make her feel better. Instead she simply snorted and shook her head.

"Afterwards I was almost broken. I watched Ruby everywhere she went, hovered over her and promised I'd be a better sister. If I had to, _I'd_ become the mother she needed and _nothing_ would hurt her. I was responsible for her life, and I had to make sure she was okay. So I do know what it feels like to have to look at someone and make sure they're okay - even when your mind is logically saying you know they are safe."

"I guess you do know." Jaune acknowledged. Leaning back in his chair as he let out a long sigh at hearing such a tale, and the emotions it brought. Part of him wanted to respond by telling her about having cheated his way into Beacon, but it was a meaningless idea. The two of them were more concerned with Blake.

"I should go." He simply replied. "I need to reassure my team that I'm okay, can I trust you to watch over Blake?"

"Heh, of course you can. She's _my_ partner after all." Yang laughed as she flexed one of her muscles at him. He laughed the subtle threat off as he rose to his feet. "Thanks for looking after her though, you know?"

"She looked after me just as much, don't listen to anything she says otherwise." He didn't want to share Blake's concerns about being a burden with Yang, or anyone really. With Blake's skill and intelligence he was sure it was more a result of that difficult situation, not any real belief that she was holding team RWBY back.

"Hmm... modest as well. You know I could kiss you for looking after her, if it wouldn't be so weird to be kissed by two sisters in the same day."

Jaune blushed badly at the suggestion, the embarrassment only getting worse when a small part of his brain commented that he wouldn't at all mind being kissed by the gorgeous blonde woman in front of him. Instead though he simply fled the room as Yang's laughter followed him.

That brought back memories of what had happened earlier too. Ruby Rose had kissed him. His first kiss with a woman, Holy crap! And he'd been so shocked he hadn't even been able to respond properly to it. Not that he was sure how he was supposed to anyway? Obviously she'd done it to thank him for looking after Blake right? So would it have been wrong for him to try and deepen it or respond?

Did he even feel that way about Ruby? Sure, she was incredibly cute and funny, cheerful and supportive as well. She could be geeky at times, but then he was a bit of a dork himself and that was what they had first bonded over. He had just never considered her a romantic option, focusing on Weiss since that was the girl he had first developed a crush on...

Either way, the chance was lost now wasn't it?

Still, first kiss done, though not with Weiss as he had thought it might be. Now he could look towards getting an actual date with a girl as well.

_But first..._ He thought to himself as his stomach grumbled angrily. He'd best honour his promise and get back to his dorm. Blake was safe, and Yang was looking after her. Now it was time to look after himself.

Which was going to mean apologising to the others for his actions it seems, he thought to himself as he paused in front of the door to his room. He could vaguely hear the others inside milling about, though any conversation they were having was badly muted. Taking a deep sigh he decided to weather the storm and pushed his way into the room.

"Hey Jaune." Pyrrha greeted as he stepped inside, a plate of steaming food on the table beside her bed. She smiled at him and offered him the plate, which he took happily along with a knife and fork. Steak, roasted potatoes and a side salad... a meal fit for a king. Or so it seemed after eating nothing but field rations for so long.

"Thanks partner!" He chirped as he tucked into the soft meat, happy to delay his apology as long as possible and also becoming more lost in the taste of good food. Eventually though he began to notice the longing glances she was sending him as he ate, and the guilt began to wear down at his appetite until he stopped entirely. She didn't look like she was going to say anything.

"Pyrrha, look I'm s-" He began, only to be interrupted as she put a single finger against his lips to silence him. The action surprised him, and he felt his eyes cross as he tried to look down at the digit.

"No Jaune. I'm sorry. I let my worry for you get in the way of the concern you felt for another and that was wrong."

"Either way, I shouldn't have snapped at you." He argued back once she had removed her finger and allowed him to speak.

"I can understand why you did. You must have felt I didn't believe in you... it was like that rooftop all over again, I just wanted to help and I said it in a way that came across wrong. You're... _special_ to me Jaune." She paused here to look away from him, and for a moment he imagined that she was actually blushing at saying such a thing. "Really special, and sometimes I guess I would rather solve your problems then give you the chance to solve them yourself. But that's not what I'm supposed to do, is it?"

"You're special to me as well Pyrrha, you're my partner and my best friend." He whispered back to her as he settled down next to her on her mattress. "But I need to grow stronger too so I can protect people, yourself included if you ever need it. And I can't do that if you're always looking out for me."

She didn't look as pleased with his words as he had hoped she would, in fact she looked a little disappointed before she hid it behind a smile and pushed him over so he fell flat on the floor.

"Hey, I'm a recovering man here." He laughed up at her, the position reminiscent of making up after their first real fight. Just like that time so long ago, she looked down at him with a small smirk that was neither pity, nor concern. Things would be good again, he knew it.

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><p>In the end it had taken far less apologising to convince Ren and Nora to forgive him, the latter all too eager to ignore any lingering bitter feelings, while Ren seemed to understand a little that it was his tiredness and exhaustion speaking and not his real feelings. Either way it had only taken an hour or so to explain his story to the three of them, the situation made more difficult by Nora's constant interruptions and questions.<p>

"So many Grimm travelling at once is an ill omen." Ren commented as he sat on his bed. "As if the attack on those villages was not bad enough."

"That's true, but we must remember there are hundreds of Hunters who will respond to the threat, as well as the military." Pyrrha responded as she unbuckled her armour and laid it beside her bed. "We might have a few more missions of our own though."

"I just hope they're not as bad as this one." Jaune sighed as he unpacked his bags and laid the various things he would need to clean tomorrow out on the floor. There was no way he was going to be doing all this now. It was while he was emptying his bag that he came across something he hadn't remembered picking up until now.

A small fluffy teddy-bear.

_Ah, I remember you._ Jaune thought to himself as he turned the bear over in his hands. Taking it with him had been a spur of the moment kind of thing. A desire to give it a better life than it had in Elgard, considering it had done its best to help its previous owner.

It didn't deserve to be left in a dead town.

_You'll have a better life here._ He promised as he set it out on the windowsill so it could look out over the courtyard of Beacon.

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><p><strong>Team CFVY, I don't know why I imagine Coco and her team to be like that, but there has been serious review love for them. So I added some moments for them in there.<strong>

**That's the chapter though. It felt a little disjointed, but I didn't want any large timeskips to be used, and as such Blake will need a day or two to recover. I don't intend to give Jaune PTSD, it's more Pyrrha's mothering tendencies coming into play. Though like any normal human he won't be just "over it" either. I'm worried that Jaune's interaction with JNPR was too abrupt, but I likened it to the way he lashed out at Pyrrha on the rooftop when she offered to help him. He doesn't seem to react too well to care or attention in the series, and he isn't exactly fully rested now either.**

**The next chapter or two will be more casual, and will deal with the drama unfolding over Jaune's love life, as well as Blake's recovery. Pyrrha is feeling the pressure, not only from Blake, but now also from Ruby too. Meanwhile Blake has shown her first real signs of being interested in Jaune - for those who were able to spot it. Jaune? Well... he still thinks everyone is completely out of his league. **

**There weren't many romantic feels here. Blake is in treatment, Ruby is too shy after her bold move, and Pyrrha tried but Jaune didn't realise what she meant. I actually feel worried this is sounding harem-ish, but it won't be. We know Pyrrha crushes on him from the series, and I felt Ruby could as well to be honest. I don't want to just "ignore" the relationships Rooster Teeth has put in.**

**I should have the next chapter up around the time of New Years.**

**Oh yeah, the bear appeared again randomly. Maybe it's possessed?**


	11. Chapter 11

**Originally I had a long piece here about how we need to band together to report and stop Challenge fics, which are appearing in archives, including the RWBY Crossover ones. I'm worried about them coming into the main archive and clogging them up... but I suppose I will raise the issue if it ever arrives. For now I'll just say, if you see any, chances are I have reported them for being against the rules, could you please join me in doing so, using the "Actions" button at the bottom of a challenge fic. We don't want our story lists to be replaced by 400 word challenges that are updated every day so they always are near the top =/ **

**So here is chapter 10, which deals with some emotions of the characters, as well as raising a rather important plot point in the relationship between Jaune and Blake. I hope if you have any concerns about the chapter, you'll read the note at the end which as usual explains some of my reasons. **

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><p><strong>Beta: Super Saiyan Cyndaquill<strong>

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><p>Chapter 10<p>

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><p>Blake crossed her arms under her breasts, leaning back on the uncomfortable headboard of the bed as she sighed bitterly to herself. Six hours. That was how long she had been alone for. With nothing more than her scroll for company, and the occasional uncaring queries from the medical staff as to her wellbeing.<p>

She had hours ago come to the conclusion that she despised being alone. Something which had come as a surprise to her, considering how before coming to Beacon she had often found solace in a quiet corner and a book. Now though she had adapted to require a certain level of human interaction, and the sudden lack of it was stifling. Even when she read her books now, it was always with the dull thrum of conversation in the library, or the boisterous banter of her teammates at the dinner table.

She'd woken up that morning around eight, quickly flying into a stressed panic upon discovering a plastic _tube_ travelling up her nose and down her throat. She was a little embarrassed that she hadn't calmed down until they'd slowly removed it – and what a nausea inducing feeling that had been. But still, you just didn't expect to wake up to find that inside you. Either way, it was gone for now, and if she had her way it would never be coming anywhere near her again.

Her team had come by an hour later to bring her breakfast and chat with her for an hour, before they were drawn off to attend lessons. The nurses had refused to let her go along with them, no matter how well she assured them she felt. So she'd been abandoned to sit here alone until classes ended and someone came along to rescue her from death by boredom.

A small part of her mind cautioned that she shouldn't be so hasty, that she had been lucky to get away with such little damage – especially when it was her lung which was damaged. Apparently there had been a serious risk of her right lung collapsing due to the air trapped inside it. To then survive being trapped alone in a forest was nothing short of miraculous. She should be savouring her life right now, even the boredom.

But emotions didn't work like that! She was bored, cranky and stiff and if something didn't change to improve that situation then the next nurse to ask if she was okay was going to get their eyes scratched out.

So instead she waited; half-sat up on her bed, arms crossed beneath her breasts. Lips pressed into a thin, displeased frown. And eyes narrowed in silent warning.

_I am not sulking. I am in silent protest._ She assured herself internally as a vindictive thrill went through her body at seeing a persistent medical staff member change direction to avoid talking with her.

"Er… is this a bad time?" A familiar voice hesitantly queried from a few metres away, causing her amber eyes to snap from the fleeing nurse to lock onto the blonde who had somehow snuck up on her. "I can come back later?" Her eyes widened.

"No!" She shouted out, louder than she intended to, which caused him to jump back almost in fear. Her cheeks darkened a little as she coughed into her fist and adopted a more normal expression. "I mean, no. Now is good."

"Okay?" Jaune hedged uncertainly as he moved a few steps closer. Blake sighed as she rolled her head back in embarrassment at having shown such an uncharacteristic outburst.

"Sorry, I'm just bored." She apologised with a small shrug of one shoulder. "Very bored. So please don't leave, I need any distraction I can get right now."

"Yeah I remember feeling the same." He cheered up a little, but still seemed a little awkward, which was strange. Weren't they beyond this point already? She had thought they had become closer since their little diversion at Elgard. "Actually I… err, the reason I came was to return the favour."

"Favour?" She asked with a confused expression, but Jaune was already digging around in his backpack and seemingly hadn't heard her question. A few seconds of rummaging later he drew his arm out with a leather-bound tome in hand. "A book!" Blake gasped, before feeling incredibly stupid for that obvious comment. But _really_, she had been stuck with nothing to do for over eight hours… Yang had promised this morning that she would get her something to read after classes, but that had still left her without reading material through the main part of the day.

"Yeah, I didn't come see you this morning because I wanted to find a book you might like in the library. I don't have any books of my own here and wanted to find a good one."

Despite herself, Blake couldn't help but feel a rush of affection for the man at those words. A more objective and cynical part of her mind commented that coming to see his injured friend was _actually_ the sweeter thing to do… But he had instead spent the morning looking for good literature for her. Somehow that was better in her mind. Sympathy could go jump off a bridge.

"You are my favourite blonde right now." She instead joked as she leaned forward to accept the book from his hands. The brown leather was dappled and damaged, showing great use; a sign of a good book in her mind. The title was simple - Legend.

"Uh… thanks." Jaune blushed as he pulled his hands back to scratch the back of his head. "But considering the only other blonde you know is Yang, I'm not sure how much of a compliment that is."

_Ah, there's that sense of humour again._ Blake thought to herself as she smiled in amusement with him. It certainly seemed like he was going back to his old ways; nervous, uncertain and well… annoying. But there were definitely still signs of the sarcastic humour he had shown when they were trapped in that tree. No one appreciated sarcasm as much as Blake Belladonna.

Still… it was strange to see him acting this nervous again. She had honestly thought the sights they had seen at Elgard would have changed him, or at the very least he would have retained some of the confidence he showed when he was leading them. Instead he had been out of her sight for not even a day, and he was back to old habits.

"So, you and the others have gone back to classes? Yang told me we would have time off." Maybe he just needed to get into a conversation to calm down.

"Ugh... Yeah." Jaune huffed as he leaned back on a seat next to her bed. "I guess we all wanted the time off, but then Weiss wanted to not fall behind. And Pyrrha said the lessons could save our lives… then I think Yang got protective and said they should train or go to lessons." His face was piqued with distress as he recalled this, and she couldn't help but laugh softly as she imagined each of them slowly coming round in turn. No doubt both Jaune and Ren had just sighed in defeat and followed the rest.

"And it snowballed from there?" She guessed, as he nodded in return. She supposed with her inside knowledge she could see how it had happened too. Weiss was easy enough to see, and Pyrrha was a champion – you didn't become that without being competitive, plus she wanted Jaune to do well. With what Yang had seen and experienced at Elgard, she was probably very keen to whip Ruby and herself into shape. Nora… well Nora would be all for anything that beat actually relaxing…

"Yeah… not even a single day holiday. What the Hell? Don't tell Pyrrha I said that though."

"Naturally." She grinned back as he stiffened in his seat and looked about to see if the redheaded taskmaster had actually heard him. "Has she started training you again, yet?" She hoped not… they all needed to get a good night's sleep, and Jaune had been without sleep for as long as she had. Though _he_ hadn't been anaesthetised like a damn animal.

"We're doing some sparring tonight… I don't think I'll be able to beat her though…"

"I'm sure you can. I've seen you fight." Blake urged as she regarded him as he fidgeted nervously next to her bed. From what she had seen at Elgard, Jaune had been easily as competent as Pyrrha herself was. Certainly not as skilled as she was, considering she was a renowned champion who was competent in three different weapons and methods of attack…

But he made up for it in other ways. His strength was far superior, considering that she had seen him turn aside blows from Ursa, and even stagger them by striking with his shield. That _had_ to require some serious upper body strength. What's more his stamina seemed to be incredible, considering how _long_ he had been fighting for…. And that he could continue doing so after they had crashed.

If he played to those strengths, then she was sure he could give Pyrrha a run for her money… maybe even beat her if he caught her off guard, or just worked to outlast her. Wear her down or something.

"Yeah… it's just… I don't know." He shrugged helplessly as he looked at her and she simply smiled it away, despite the curiosity she was actually feeling. Maybe she should pay some attention to the next time Miss Goodwitch had them spar. If his combat prowess was something that was making him unconfident then she supposed she could put some effort into fixing it. Perhaps that would go some way to changing him a little for the better too.

"I suppose you can only try your best." She offered as a rather empty platitude, before her eyes narrowed suddenly, sensing an opportunity. "Never mind that though… while you're here how about you help me go get some food from the cafeteria?" As expected he perked up at the idea, before seeming to freeze and look at her uncertainly.

"I'm not sure you're supposed to leave here…" He hedged, and she did her best to smother the sudden flash of annoyance which almost overtook her. Damn, he'd noticed that.

"I'm almost as good as recovered; a short walk and some food would be good for my recovery. Don't you agree?" She leaned forward and laid a hand on his wrist as she said this, offering him a small smile in an attempt to sway his answer.

"I'm not sure…" Jaune fidgeted in his seat as her eyebrows twitched. Gods, couldn't he just make a decision already?

"Come on Jaune, the nurses think I'll be free to leave tomorrow. What's the worst that could happen?"

"Freeze! This is the police!" A voice exclaimed suddenly from the door to the room, causing Jaune to leap up from his seat in a panic, even as Blake let out a suffering sigh and turned towards the door. Her blonde partner stood there, hand outstretched with two fingers pointing towards Blake like a gun. "Nobody move!"

"Yang…" Blake groaned with a distressed expression on her face. But the blonde ignored her and instead wandered over to Jaune.

"The prisoner goes nowhere Private Arc, and until she's released from here you _don't_ give in to her flirtations." The blonde boy blushed, gulped and tried to protest in one movement, leaving him coughing for air, even as Blake rolled her eyes.

"Damn it Yang…" She protested as the taller girl settle down into the now vacated seat by her bed. Flirtations… really? Was touching a man's arm and smiling now considered flirting? Well, actually, yes she supposed it was. But in the case of trying to gain her freedom she preferred the term "manipulation."

"I'd best go then… err… see you tomorrow I guess Blake." The male blonde coughed out before practically fleeing the room, Yang's mocking laughter following after him.

"Sheesh, you'd think he was the rabbit instead of Velvet, from how he acts." She quipped as she wiggled her eyebrows at Blake. "I wonder if that says something about you, being a cat and all."

"Hardly." Blake sighed as she ignored the innuendo in the words. "But the rabbit comparison is apt enough."

"Hmm… and you trying to flirt your way to freedom. I am _so_ proud right now."

"Glad to know my desperation amuses you." She sighed back as her head rolled back against the headboard again. Despite the action she was pleased to have Yang here, even if it was just to be the butt of her teasing. Anything was better than sitting alone all day.

"Desperate would be a good choice of words, I've no idea what Rubes and P-money see in the guy." The blonde made an expression of mild distaste after she said the words, and for a moment Blake felt an overpowering urge to defend him. Her eyes narrowed as she considered the emotion, before rationalising it away. Jaune was her friend now, so it was natural to want to defend him. Either way, she knew Yang didn't mean what she had said in an offensive manner.

"I'm not sure about Ruby, but part of me thinks Pyrrha's attraction does actually stem from desperation." She instead responded.

"Hmm… go on." Yang urged when she didn't continue. Blake nodded and paused to collect her thoughts before offering her theory.

"It seems to me that Pyrrha enjoys it when people treat her normally, probably due to her life as a celebrity figure. If you remember, Weiss was complaining how Jaune didn't even know who Pyrrha Nikos was." Though Weiss' indignation had mostly come from the fact that Jaune Arc didn't know who _she_ was.

"So Pyrrha likes him because he's the only guy who treats her like a normal person? Awkward, but it makes sense… actually it makes a scary amount of sense if you consider how she acts, and how they ended up being partnered together." Blake nodded in agreement. Pyrrha had literally chosen him, and _ensured_ they would be partners based on nothing more than a single conversation between the two of them. No one made a decision that would affect them over the next four years in a single instant… not unless they were desperate that is.

"It's actually pretty grim now that I think of it like that." Yang complained with an uncomfortable expression on her face. "I'm not sure if I should feel sorry for P-money or Jaune himself."

"I don't think it's that bad anymore." Blake offered with a shrug. "It may have been pure desperation that made her take the risk, but they get along well and the whole team is best friends. I'm sure Pyrrha has found better reasons to desire him now." Blake didn't like to use the word "love," mostly because she thought it weird when people suggested they could fall in love so quickly. Love was meant to be an incredible feeling, and very rare, if her books were to be believed. Not something you just assigned to the first person to catch your eye… it was almost as if people reduced its value.

"Yeah, you're probably right. I mean he's a good guy, I get that. Not bad looking, if a little scruffy. Okay body, at least he's tall…" Blake wanted to laugh at the expression on Yang's face, it was the look of a person who was desperately trying to compliment a meal that was making them sick thinking of it.

"But his personality?" Blake finished with an understanding smile, even as Yang slumped in her seat.

"Yeah… I mean he has a good personality too, friendly, nice, loyal, generous I guess. Definitely not selfish or arrogant like some other guys. But he's just got like… no edge." The blonde looked as though she was trying to find the right words to explain what she meant, hands waving around dramatically. "He's like a teddy bear. All love and kindness, but I couldn't ever date a teddy bear."

"A teddy bear!?" Blake laughed softly as she considered the image of a Jaune sized teddy bear with a sword and shield. "I do understand what you mean though, he's just a really _nice_ guy, but there isn't anything to grab your attention. Or attraction."

"Exactly!" Yang agreed with a grin. "Y'know, I was fairly sure you were into him as well. I think P-money still thinks you are."

"And whose fault is that?" Blake replied as she looked at Yang out of the corner of her eyes, a flat expression on her face. Yang shrugged unapologetically. "Why did you think I was interested in that way? Beyond just teasing me for the sake of it I mean."

"Hey…" Yang jokingly complained, before putting a hand beneath her chin in thought. "I think it was just because of how much effort you were putting into him. I know he saved your life, so you giving him a book to read _was_ fair enough. But the whole Elgard thing, then being willing to be his confidante if he needed help and all that. That's a lot of effort to just put into a friend you're not even close with."

"I suppose…" Blake accepted as she crossed her arms once more. "The book thing… well he liked my book, so we talked about it a little. It's nice to find someone who likes books like I do. As for Elgard… maybe it was sympathy or pity, I don't know. I would have done the same for you if I thought you needed it."

"Aww Blakey." Yang cooed as she gave the bedridden faunus a soft hug. Blake lightly patted the back of Yang's shoulder. "Is this the part where we make out?"

"Back off tiger." Blake smiled as she pushed the blonde away, giggling slightly at the pervy look on her face as she made over-the-top kissy motions.

"I have to wonder though… you looked kinda frustrated with Jaune back there, he seemed to be acting normally though. So what was the issue?"

Blake sighed at the words, feeling a little uncomfortable, but knowing that if Yang had noticed then she wouldn't be able to avoid the issue.

"Well… it's like you said, his lack of confidence and general panicked attitude is kind of annoying when you're trying to have a conversation with him." It wasn't an issue when he was talking with other people or she was listening to him having a conversation already. But when you were trying to actually one-on-one talk to him, it was awkward to have him not meet your eyes or look like he was always hiding something. Let alone that he almost forced _you_ to make every line of dialogue yourself.

"Yeah, but that's how he's always been. And you've been able to chat with him quite a bit recently."

"That's just it though." Blake argued as she leaned forward in her bed. "He _hasn't_ been like that."

"Eh, really?"

"Absolutely." Blake nodded, making sure to keep her eyes locked on Yang's. "You remember when we were in that basement? He was straight to the point, no stammering, no panic. He took control and even went so far as to order us."

"Yeah, but that was a pretty traumatic situation. You can't expect him to act normally when he sees _that_."

"True. But even after that, all through the mission and the fighting he was confident and clear, he made good decisions and was a proper leader." He'd also been a confident combatant, relying on good instincts and his training to defend and attack with equal ability. He was definitely strong enough to be a confident person, so it was annoying, maybe even galling, to see him go back to this manner.

"I'll have to take your word for it, I was holding the other side with P-money and Ren. How was he when you were stranded?"

"The same." She sighed out. "He wasn't afraid to take command, he was willing to argue and even shout at me if it was necessary. He even cracked jokes and was sarcastic about what was going on. He was good company, enjoyable even."

"You liked it?" Yang teased with a dirty leer on her face, while Blake laughed and shook her head.

"I meant it was good in that situation. He kept our spirits up, if he'd been useless and weak-willed out there I think we both would have died. Instead he made a plan, stuck to it and fought off some Grimm single-handedly."

"Damn… was he assertive?" Yang asked, and Blake nodded in agreement. "Confident?" Another nod. "Huh… that actually sounds pretty hot. If only he did that normally."

"That's my point." Blake complained, glad that Yang could understand where she was coming from. "He was a good conversationalist, interesting and fun to be around. I became closer friends with that side of him, and to see him go back to this? It's not that I hate Jaune or anything, but it's annoying to see him act so uncertain… he acts like some kind of comic relief character from a B-rate movie."

Yang burst out laughing at the words, rocking in her chair for a few moments before wiping her eyes.

"Comic relief, that's awesome." She whispered. "But yeah I see your point, that Jaune sounds more up my alley too. Maybe he has split personalities."

"I doubt anything that contrived." Blake sighed. "More likely he just acts more professionally on missions, but I _liked_ that professional side of him more than his typical idiot personality. So it's annoying to see him degrading himself."

"But which is the real Jaune?"

"They both are, obviously. But he could be putting on a more professional attitude when his life is on the line. It's not like he's faking or wearing a mask or anything dramatic like that. It's the same as being polite and respectful to some people, and being normal to everyone else." Except the results were a little more noticeable than that. The problem was that she couldn't bring it up to Jaune, because his goofy personality might be what he was more comfortable with, what he actually _was._ And it would be cruel of her to say she preferred him when he was acting in a way he wasn't comfortable. It would be like asking a friend not to be themselves, but instead to act in a certain way. Sure they _could_ act that way in situations that demanded it, but it didn't mean they enjoyed it.

"Eh, I can see where you're coming from to be honest. Looks like P-money and Rubes prefer his idiot personality more though. I like the sound of yours though, I'll have to keep an eye out for it next time."

"Please do." Blake urged as she rubbed her forehead with one hand, actually feeling a little tired from all the heavy thinking. "I'd love confirmation that I'm not just going insane or something."

"Maybe all those books are getting to you." Yang quipped, before leaning forward. "I have to ask though… if Jaune was like that all the time, the way you describe. Would you fancy him?"

"He's not like that." Blake cut in, shaking her head. "So it's a fairly pointless hypothesis. I might fancy Ruby if she was witty, confident, tall and male." She knew _exactly_ what Yang was fishing for; confirmation that she might fall for Jaune if he acted in that way, but just like she had said, she didn't know.

It was easy to say "if they were different," but there was history to remember too. Maybe if he had been that way when she had first met him then she would be interested in him. But that wasn't the case, and if he suddenly changed now then she would still have thoughts of him acting like a nervous child.

"Ahh, you're so boring." Yang sighed while Blake simply grinned back and picked up her new book.

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><p>Jaune reeled back as a sword slammed into his shield, sparking off the metal as he thrust his own sword forward to strike at his aggressor's midriff. Another shield met him before the strike could be completed, but luckily his strike had lacked enough force to disrupt him.<p>

Pyrrha poked at his face as her sword shifted into its spear form, but he leant backwards while waving his shield before him to prevent a follow up attack. Frustration sparked within him as he felt a strong urge to charge her with his shield but he checked the emotion and squashed it down. It was one of Pyrrha's first lessons. Emotions were all well and good in life, but not of use in a fight – you needed to be calm and analytical, the better to find and exploit openings in an opponent's guard.

A difficult thing to accomplish when your opponent was as skilled and experienced as Pyrrha freaking Nikos. Entire teams had failed to take her on, so expecting him to do so was foolish. Not that it stopped him feeling annoyed when he could never so much as strain her.

Taking a moment to correct his footwork to match her own, he edged forwards with his shield before himself, his sword held vertically behind it. It was a similar move to what she used, and she had explained it was so that he could use his sword in any direction, without having to lead it all the way around the shield's circumference.

It felt awkward to him, but he could agree that it offered him more freedom of movement.

"You need to put more force behind your blows." Pyrrha instructed as she slammed the length of her spear into his shield arm, causing a small thrum of pain to shoot through his wrist. It was easy for her to say that, but he couldn't bring himself to attack with full force… and not for any silly reason like protecting her – Pyrrha could, and regularly did, kick his ass. It was because it damaged him every time he struck at her and hit her shield, the pain shooting up his arms and jarring his shoulder painfully. It was a natural reaction to having your momentum halted so suddenly.

If he honestly saw an opening where he thought he could hit her, then he would strike purposefully. But those openings just weren't creating themselves, and it was honestly frustrating to feel like the only thing he was improving was his ability to defend against a far superior opponent.

Valuable experience for sure, but not a situation he hoped to often find himself in.

"You can't defend forever Jaune, you need to try and overpower me."

_I can't!_ His mind snarled angrily. He couldn't overpower her, she was too skilled and too strong, and over a hundred different sparring sessions previously had shown that to be the case. Deciding that he might as well make an attempt though, he shuffled forwards and brought his sword down in an overhead chop in an effort to overpower her with brute strength.

Instead of slamming into her shield as he expected, Pyrrha caught the blade on the cross guard of her sword, before delivering the edge of her shield to the underside of his jaw in a painful uppercut.

"Ugh…" Jaune groaned from where he lay on the floor, his jaw aching, though he could feel his aura healing it. That was quite the nasty blow, and the thin edge of the shield had only amplified it. Thankfully Pyrrha didn't see the necessity to land any further blows and instead offered him a hand.

"Not bad Jaune." Pyrrha praised as she pulled him to his feet and patted him on the shoulder. "Your defence is getting better, I think we just need to work on the offence."

"Sure." Jaune replied back simply as he sat on the edge of the roof with his feet dangling off the edge. It was a position they often took after sparring, to let the cold night air cool down their aching bodies and also allow them to talk. Pyrrha settled herself down next to him, her feet hanging close to his own. The first few times he had been worried about falling, but it had only taken a quick glance down to show him there was a wide ledge not four feet below that they would land safely on.

"Are you feeling better now from your mission? You're not still suffering from the stress are you?" Pyrrha spoke after a few moments to catch their breath. From the corner of his eye he could see her green eyes looking at his face. Typical Pyrrha to be so worried about him, but he owed it to her to be honest.

"I'm feeling better now. I didn't get as much sleep as I'd have liked, but the training helps wear the stress away." Which was true enough, heavy exercise was great for forgetting your problems and relaxing the mind.

"I'm glad I could help then. Are you having trouble sleeping, maybe we could get some medici-"

"Pyrrha, please." He interrupted, causing her mouth to click shut with almost panicked force. He smiled at her to show he wasn't upset at her concern, and she seemed to calm down. "It was my first night back, let's wait to see if I keep having trouble before you drug me. Not to mention I could happily have slept in for another four hours if Nora didn't share a room with us."

"I suppose you're right." Pyrrha laughed softly, her arm brushing against his lightly as she seemed to lean into him before righting herself. "We'll get an early night tonight I guess. We have combat training with Miss Goodwitch tomorrow."

"Sure." He agreed, though he made no move to get up from the rooftop, and neither did she.

"Jaune…?" The redhead enquired softly, her voice sounding unsure in a way that had him shifting to face her with a concerned expression on his own face for once. She shuffled slightly in place, her hands clutching one another before she looked up to meet his eyes.

"When you came back from that mission you… well Ruby…" She stammered off, and Jaune felt his own cheeks turn red to match her hair as she brought up that memory. "Did you… do you like Ruby?"

Jaune looked away as he tried to think of a response to give to that statement. Sure, on retrospect he had enjoyed the kiss, for the brief few seconds he had experienced it. Honestly it had been two seconds of _what is happening_, maybe one second of _Oh my God_ and then one last second to actually _feel_ it before it was over.

"Yeah… that." He stammered out uncertainly as a finger idly touched his lower lip, a move which Pyrrha seemed to be paying attention to. "I don't know, it was over so quick I wasn't sure what to think. I don't think it matters anyway. Ruby did it to thank me for looking after Blake, it's not like she's actually into me." He laughed as he said that, scratching the back of his head, while Pyrrha echoed him, her own laughter not sounding all that amused.

"Maybe." She said simply as she looked back out into the night. Jaune could feel a silence building between the two of them so looked to break it himself.

"So do _you_ have anyone you're interested in then?" He cajoled teasingly as he nudged an elbow into her side, making her jump slightly. Pyrrha's face instantly flushed strongly at his words, in a way that made him pleased. Not so easy when it's on the other foot is it!

"M-me!?" She nervously stuttered, turning away from him to hide her face, despite that he had caught it already. If only he'd thought to take a picture on his scroll, he could have enjoyed looking at her blushing face for hours!

"Yeah, you. Surely the Great Pyrrha Nikos would know if she fancied a guy. Or a girl, I won't judge." He nudged her again as he said this.

"I like a guy!" She crowed back indignantly at his comment, before slapping a hand over her mouth to try and hide the damning words.

"Oh really? Anyone I know." So Pyrrha _was_ interested in someone. He wasn't sure what to make of that. On the one hand it was great that she had maybe found someone, but he sure hoped it wouldn't interfere with their team dynamics. Ren and Nora were partners, but Pyrrha was his partner, and he didn't like the idea of being abandoned on his own if she went off to spend time with some guy. And what if the guy was a complete bastard?

"Maybe." Pyrrha spoke quietly, taking a deep breath to bring herself back under control. "I do like someone, and I know someone I care for likes him too." She looked him in the eyes for a few seconds before continuing. "I'm worried that I might go so far as to sabotage her, just to have my way. And I don't like the picture that paints of me. Even if I win, she would be hurt."

Jaune didn't know how to respond, never having been in a similar situation himself. It was hard to imagine Ren and he in that same situation… imagining Ren pining after a person was just odd. But if Ren _did_ deeply love someone, say Nora… and then he tried to step in and take… gulp… Nora… himself….

_Okay, this analogy really isn't working._ But he could still see the general idea. And the question was; would Jaune compromise his friend's happiness by actively taking advantage of a chance to sabotage them?

He didn't know either. And that made him feel pretty bad.

"I don't know." He honestly admitted as he looked up at the cracked moon. "I'd like to think I would be the better person and let the one who it is about decide who _they_ like best. But if I was there? I'm not sure if I would be selfish or not… But…" and at this he turned to look Pyrrha directly in her green eyes, "I think you are a better person than me. You're definitely stronger than me, so I think you would be the better person."

She didn't look away from his eyes, though her expression did soften as a gentle smile curled her lips.

"Thank you." She simply replied, as he smiled back, glad to have offered some help in what was a more delicate matter than he was used to. Deciding to take one for the team, he brought the teasing back to himself to spare her any further embarrassment.

"So any advice what I should do about Ruby? Or do you think I should avoid the issue so Yang doesn't kill me." He meant it as a joke, since he had already decided that Ruby wasn't actually interested in him, but Pyrrha paused as her head tilted to the side in thought.

"I can't offer any advice on this I think." She smiled, with a complicated expression on her face. "Like you said, I've got to be the better person."

"Huh?" He tilted his head in confusion at her. Did she mean she was worried she might offer him bad advice by accident, he doubted she would actively sabotage him – what benefit could she honestly get for it?

"I'd suggest you not ask Yang though." She joked, which brought a grin to his lips.

"About Ruby, or just ask Yang out?"

"I'm not sure which would get you killed faster." Pyrrha laughed as she gave him a gentle elbow to the side as he laughed along. Yeah, he wasn't going to ever ask Yang out. Like Blake, she was something like fifty levels out of his league, they might as well have been different species.

"Just answer me one thing Pyrrha?" He asked, looking seriously at her when she nodded to him. "It's not Cardin is it?"

"Idiot!" Pyrrha huffed as she pulled him back by his collar, slamming him painfully onto his back as she grinned cockily down at him. Yeah, he guessed he deserved that.

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><p><strong>I'd like to head off any concerns people might have here about me "bashing" on Jaune with that conversation between Yang and Blake. First of all, I'm sure you're all aware that this is what women (and men) actually DO? I often chat with my girl friends about guys they have slept with or who have asked them out. We always analyse them and discuss their flaws and good points etc... Just like this. But beyond that, I wanted to show the distinction Blake has between her attraction for one facet of Jaune, while being almost disgusted (though not that extreme) with the other side. <strong>

**This was actually the inspiration for the story. In my mind I imagined a humerous situation where Blake keeps getting turned on whenever Jaune is a badass, then frustrated when he is a doofus. And poor little Blake's emotions constantly jumping between enamoured and annoyed driving her insane. While Yang watches on amused. It also lends credence to a reviewer who once commented that Blake and Jaune only seem to get on well in trauma situations, well here is the reason! You spotted something I had purposefully put in, it's always nice to have people notice it. **

**Another shorter chapter here. I struggle to write long chapters where there is no drama or action taking place. Next chapter will still be a Beacon one, with Blake exiting the infirmary and combat evaluations with Goodwitch. I would expect maybe two more chapters before they hear any more about the incursion.**

**Also I felt bad for Pyrrha at the end here, as if her name wasn't signal enough, she surely has achieved a Pyrrhic Victory here by taking Jaune's words to heart. All's fair in love and war, she should take every advantage she has – but we see in the series time and time again that she doesn't… she always let's Jaune go after Weiss, to her own loss. Despite that she could have convinced him to give up on her a while back. **

**P.s. "Legend" by David Gemmell is an AMAZING book. He always captures the more emotional sides of wars and battles, often in ways that surprise and amaze me. **


	12. Chapter 12

**Here we go again, it's been a while. I had a bit of a spat with a reviewer on my last chapter, but I managed to push on past, most people seemed quite pleased with the Blake - Yang conversation last chapter, but he felt I had their character totally wrong as there was 100% no way Yang or Blake would EVER talk behind someone's back (good or bad), and that I have written Jaune as a spineless coward. A spineless coward who on chapter 1 took a fatal blow for Blake, and who since has saved her life again and fought against Ursa... etc, etc... **

**Oh well. What does kill me a little is how my other fic has proven so much more popular than this one! Since this is like my lover, and the other is just a casual affair... I guess most people here prefer the humour or more casual stories though, ah well. My love will remain for this though.**

**P.s. Professor Arc will be updated before Monday. I'm at a wedding anniversary overnight tonight, so I can't write.**

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><p><strong>Beta: Super Saiyan Cyndaquill - Seriously, he picks out some really atrocious spelling mistakes I've made! Literally I wrote "they're" instead of "there" ... I write for a living! That's just embarrassing!<strong>

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><p><strong>Chapter 11<strong>

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><p>Blake quietly ate her apple as she listened to the two teams animatedly chatting around their breakfast table. As usual, the conversations were dominated between Nora, Yang and Ruby, discussing some recent weapon conversion they had seen in one of Ruby's magazines. The smaller girl's arms were waving wildly as she gushed about some modifications that Blake honestly could barely understand, but which Nora seemed to be able to intrinsically grasp.<p>

Beside them Jaune seemed to be doing his best to follow the conversation, though the slightly glazed look in his eyes showed he was struggling just as much as she was. Pyrrha seemed more focused on Jaune, little change there, while Ren certainly seemed pleased someone else was entertaining Nora for a change.

"I'm surprised the doctors were willing to let you out so soon." Weiss commented from beside Blake, drawing her attention away from the debate to look at the short girl sat beside her. The heiress had her nose in a book in a strange role reversal of their usual habits, but then again Weiss had missed a few days of classes thanks to their mission. While Blake hadn't had any wholesome food since what felt like forever.

"The damage was mostly repaired. I think they were tired of dealing with me by that point." Blake gloated with a casual shrug of one shoulder. Weiss seemed to sigh.

"I would have expected Ruby to be the one to cause enough fuss to be thrown out of the hospital Blake." She reprimanded, to which Blake simply ignored the rebuke. Perhaps when Weiss had honestly tried being trapped in the medical bay for so long then she would accept her point of view. But until then, few could understand her boredom.

"I'm still officially not allowed to take part in any combat lessons, and Miss Goodwitch has been made aware." She admitted with a soft sigh. It was a small sacrifice to make for her freedom, though it would make for a boring day as she watched everyone else having fun in the rings. She'd been fighting Grimm for so long that she wanted to see if she'd grown any stronger.

"Is there a risk of your condition worsening?" The heiress asked as she paused in her reading. She didn't look up from the textbook, but Blake recognised the stilling of her shoulders as meaning Weiss was paying full attention. The faunus couldn't help the small smile that curled at the edges of her lips at the poorly hidden concern.

"None at all." She answered honestly. "It's just one of those automatic medical cautions they force on everyone." Obviously she had been told to avoid letting her ribs be damaged any further, but that her aura would work as it always did to protect her from damage. At the end of the day all she had to do to avoid her lung collapsing was _not take any serious lung damage_. Something she would hardly have to change her lifestyle to follow.

"-probably paired with Cardin again." Blake heard Jaune complain from nearby, as she turned to tune back into their conversation, which seemed to have changed to their upcoming lessons. "I always seem to be fighting him."

"That would be because he is the closest to your level Arc." Weiss criticised, drawing eyes to their end of the table as Blake gently kicked Weiss' leg under the table. "Miss Goodwitch makes those on a similar level face one another so that the fights are roughly fair."

"Hardly seems fair when Jauney keeps losing." Nora mumbled past a few pancakes that were hanging from her mouth. And while Blake could realistically agree with the statement, it didn't change the fact that Jaune had proven himself unable to defeat Cardin in the past.

"Don't worry about it guys." Jaune deflected as he laughed nervously at having made himself the centre of attention once again. A little late for that, in Blake's mind.

"Welp. That explains why I keep having to fight P-money." Yang quipped from her edge of the table, as she slumped her cheek down onto her palm. "And here I was wondering when I'd get to fight you Jaune."

"Eh, I don't think I'd survive that…" Jaune laughed weakly as he leant back from the bored looking brawler. Yang seemed to notice the movement and gave him a predatory grin that had him half hiding behind Ruby.

"Ignoring deciding who gets to beat Arc into a pulp…" Weiss broke in once more, unintentionally coming to the rescue of the man who had caused her so much irritation. "I, for one, would appreciate getting to the class early so we can secure seats close to the rings."

The others seemed to agree easily enough, and Blake rose to her feet and followed after them with half her attention still on the book that Jaune had found for her. Walking and reading was a skill she had worked on for a long time, and though she would not call herself a master she was more than capable of keeping up with their large, and loud, group.

As always Miss Goodwitch stood waiting for them, despite that there was still ten minutes of lunch remaining. If Blake didn't constantly see her rushing around handling other matters, then she might have believed the woman lived in the combat rooms.

"Students." She greeted simply with a nod, accepting their polite greetings in return, while ignoring Yang's boisterous hello. "Find yourself somewhere to wait, I shall announce the matches as they take place. Miss Belladonna, I trust you know you will not be participating?"

Though she phrased it as a question, the emphasis was more as a reminder, of perhaps a subtle warning. Either way Blake nodded once to show she understood.

"Hey Miss G, can I fight Jaune today?" Yang asked with a large smile, ignoring the frantic waving of said boy's arms as he shook his head and pleaded towards the stern looking teacher.

"You will be assigned against whom I think would be best for you Miss Xiao-Long." The teacher replied simply as she pushed her glasses up her nose and turned away. "That will be Miss Nikos." She added as she walked away, while Yang and Jaune slumped. One in relief, and the other in defeat.

"Make sure to go easy on me." Pyrrha quipped with a small grin, as Yang slumped down next to Blake, the others taking their own seats nearby.

"It's not like you to avoid fighting Pyrrha." Blake spoke as she closed her book with a quiet sound of pages slapping together. "I thought you enjoyed a fight you could go all-out in." Unsaid, was the suggestion that Jaune would not offer that same resilience. Few could, when faced with the unstoppable aggression of Yang Xiao-Long. The girl in question looked to both sides to see if anyone was listening before responding with a small sigh.

"I do like it. But still, I've not yet won a fight against her. It's just a bad matchup for me, and there's nothing I can really do to improve it. It sucks losing every single fight."

"Miss Goodwitch usually says you need to work on your temper, or think more." Blake offered as she turned slightly to better face her partner. It was true that Yang had yet to succeed against the Mistral Champion, and there certainly wasn't anything wrong with that. Pyrrha had plenty of experience in hunter vs hunter combat, both casually and competitively.

"That's the issue." Yang sighed as she flicked some hair out of her face. "I can't work on my temper, or think more. It's not my style."

Blake rolled her eyes as a smile stretched across her features.

"Well you might have to adapt it if you want to win." Yang shook her head quickly, and the serious expression on her face made Blake pause.

"No, I don't mean like my style… I mean it's my combat style, the one I've been learning for over six years."

_Oh…_ Blake thought to herself. And what a big _"oh"_ it was. Now she could see the problem Yang was facing. It wasn't that she wasn't taking the time to think her actions through, but that she could not physically do so while still fighting at peak ability. It was easy to say you should take the time to pause and think about what you have to do next, but not if your entire combat style relied on increasing levels of aggression and momentum, to the point where it would all be undone by taking that time.

"Is it related to your semblance?" Blake asked as other students began to make their way into the hall, taking their own seats as the level of noise increased.

"Sorta. It's also my weapons though. Ember Cecilia lets me attack either close or at a short distance, but against P-money, the short distance is worthless. So I have to go melee." Blake could see the reasoning there. Pyrrha was more than proficient in using her shield as a defence against any ranged attacks, and her own rifle form of Milo would give her an easy edge over the defenceless Yang. "Pyrrha's always got an answer to any move I make, and at the end of the day when I do get close she just uses her semblance to make me miss. My babies are made of metal after all."

Blake winced slightly in sympathy, seeing why Yang was so frustrated. Pyrrha really was her complete counter in these matches, having the edge at long, mid and melee range. What was worse is that Yang could hardly even use her semblance, because it relied on receiving continuous heavy damage. Pyrrha didn't fight like that, she didn't attack with aggression or anger, but cold calculating strategy, which let her pick you apart. It didn't feed Yang's flames enough, as the analogy might go.

"Our first competitors will be Miss Pyrrha Nikos, and Miss Yang Xiao-Long." Miss Goodwitch intoned, bringing the hall to a silence as Yang stood up beside Blake.

"Good luck." Blake whispered uselessly, feeling completely unable to help her partner, and not enjoying the feeling either. The blonde turned to give her a smile and a thumbs up, but it didn't do anything to make Blake feel better.

_I can watch and analyse though. If I can find Yang a way to beat her, then I'll share it. I'm sure even Pyrrha would appreciate having a potential weakness pointed out._

If only so she could close it the next time, but even a single win might help Yang feel better. It might also prompt Miss Goodwitch to pair them elsewhere.

"Ready yourselves." The teacher shouted as a thin transparent barrier opened around them, and the lights dimmed. Blake knew that inside the barrier, neither Yang nor Pyrrha would be able to see anyone around them, or hear the crowd in the slightest. They in turn would be protected from any stray attacks or explosions that might take place.

"Go Yang!" Ruby cheered, ever-believing in her older sister, even as some of the other students started to chat or make bets on who would win. The odds were heavily in favour of Pyrrha Nikos.

Miss Goodwitch's voice would not be heard within the dome, so it was up to the combatants to initiate combat. Yang darted forwards as she punched the air in front of herself, discharging a loud blast from her Ember Cecilia as Pyrrha hid behind her shield to absorb the damage. Blake watched how Yang used the distraction to close the distance between herself and her opponent, neutralising the danger of Pyrrha chipping away at her aura levels before she could get into combat. _Good plan._ Blake praised in her mind, even as Yang used one hand to drag down the shield, while sending a left hook towards Pyrrha's unprotected face.

Blake's eyes widened as Pyrrha's shield instantly changed direction, easily breaking Yang's hold on it as it shot upwards, the edge slamming into the bottom of Yang's forearm and causing her to reel back in pain. There was no way Pyrrha had more physical strength than Yang, and certainly it would be impossible to raise a shield with just one arm, while Yang was using her entire weight to push it down…

_Her semblance…_ Blake realised with a grimace. Knowing that using it was not only accepted, but completely encouraged. After all, what was the point of having these bouts if they did not fight at full ability? That would utterly sabotage someone like Ruby or Weiss, who almost fully relied on their own to fight.

Still… if Pyrrha's polarity was enough to change the direction her shield faced, and even break Yang's grip, then what could the blonde do?

Yang would not give in though, and true to form she launched a blistering attack against Pyrrha, drawing her shield high with some heavy blows towards her head, hands exploding angrily as she discharged Ember Cecilia. As soon as the champion's vision was obscured by her shield she dropped low, spinning on her arms as she used one extended leg to sweep against the back of Pyrrha's shins.

The redhead fell back with a shout of surprise, but even as she fell was able to strike back towards Yang, forcing the brawler to disengage, rather than land a blow on her helpless enemy as she wished. Pyrrha rolled back quickly as she landed on one shoulder, pushing away with her hands to leap back, even as she strapped her shield to her back and transformed her weapon into a rifle.

Yang saw the danger instantly and charged forwards, firing her own weapons in a few blasts in an effort to force Pyrrha to defend again.

This time however, the champion chose not to. Yang's buckshot hit Pyrrha head on, causing her aura to dip slightly but certainly not by a worrying amount. Ember Cecilia worked in a similar manner to a shotgun, and the dust spread out quickly, minimising the damage at range. Milo on the other hand….

Blake winced as three loud shots cracked out, striking Yang twice on the chest, and once on the right shoulder, taking off nearly a quarter of her aura as it did so. The blonde gritted her teeth as she ignored the pain, as well as admirably not letting the force push her back and giving Pyrrha even more time to fire.

Pyrrha didn't even seem fazed by the attack, or the paltry damage she took, calmly transforming Milo into a javelin, as she drew her shield back over her shoulder into a guard position. _Why would she use the javelin form though? The sword is better for melee, and she's not going to throw her weapon away against Yang of all people…_

Blake's question was answered a moment later, as Pyrrha stood in a ready position as Yang closed in, a fist cocked back in preparation. It looked as though Pyrrha was ready to check that charge with her shield, as she had many times before, but at the last moment she instead dropped to one knee with her shield held to the side. And her spear pointing directly at Yang's torso.

Yang twisted her body at the last moment, just managing to avoid being impaled in what would definitely have been a move to end the fight. The sudden change in direction however, coupled with Yang's momentum left her completely out of control as she tripped and slammed down onto the hard floor to the side.

Pyrrha rose gracefully, her spear transforming once more as two more shots landed on Yang's unprotected body, causing her to grunt as she climbed to her feet, eyes red with anger. The third shot that struck Yang directly in the face was the final straw.

"GRAHHH!" Yang roared as she charged once more, though this time not with the same reckless speed as the last. A fourth shot struck her as she approached, the only thing Yang was able to do being to accept it as a consequence of not closing the distance as fast. Pyrrha seemed to recognising that her trick wouldn't be successful this time, and lowered herself into a crouch with Milo in sword form held ready beside her shield.

_I hope you have a plan Yang…_ Blake whispered in her mind as the two locked again. Once more Pyrrha was using her shield to easily deflect Yang's blows, while Yang was turning away her sword by using Ember Cecilia as a gauntlet to knock the blade aside. Even then, it was Yang who was having more difficulty. Turning aside a blade using your fists, no matter how well protected, required you to strike the flat of the blade, and it wasn't as easy as taking the blow on a large shield.

_Yang's right… this isn't a fight, everything about Pyrrha counters her, and even though Yang has been able to use her semblance it's hardly at her usual power. Pyrrha isn't using force or heavy attacks, she's chipping away at Yang to make sure she doesn't trigger her powers too much._

She was a technical fighter, and a strategist. Her weapon offered her near peerless flexibility, while her shield offered the perfect defence. And while she wasn't as quick or agile as Blake herself was, Pyrrha was easily on the same speed level as Yang, and that's what counted here.

"The match is over!" Miss Goodwitch shouted out as the barrier fell and Yang slammed into to the floor from the final blow. Her aura was at the 25% mark, while Pyrrha's was still over 80%. Blake couldn't help but think Yang had done well to take that much off.

"Yang, are you okay?" Pyrrha asked with genuine concern as she rushed over and helped the blonde to her feet. At the very least Pyrrha was always polite to those she defeated, and after a moment's glare from still red eyes Yang grinned.

"Yeah I'm fine. Try fighting me without your shield next time."

Pyrrha's response was cut off as Nora, Ruby and the others rushed to meet them, clamouring loudly about the fight as well as fussing over the both of them. Blake waited patiently, unwilling to interfere in the loud conversations when she could simply wait for Yang to come sit by her again.

"Jaune Arc, and Cardin Winchester." The teacher shouted out over the noise, drawing a few quiet complaints from team JNPR. Not Jaune though, who dutifully made his way into the ring and took his place across from the taller student. Cardin didn't taunt him like he used to, instead he looked quiet and grim as he hefted his mace into a ready position.

"See what I mean?" Yang gasped as she sat down by Blake, taking a long drink from a water bottle before throwing it back to Pyrrha.

"It was an unbalanced fight, you're right." Blake admitted, trying to fight down the small feeling of injustice that bubbled within her. Miss Goodwitch hadn't paired the two of them to be cruel, or to punish Yang… it simply was that Yang would probably demolish any other student she fought against, with Ruby maybe being the exception, but that was more due to reluctance on Yang's part to give her all against her little sister.

It was unfortunate, but any other combatant Yang faced would be unbalanced in _her_ favour.

"Eh, don't worry bout it kit-kat." Yang laughed as she ruffled between Blake's ears, causing the faunus to share a quick glare with the girl. Of course Yang knew better than to touch her ears or displace her bow in front of so many others, but the irritating part is that Blake couldn't react as she wanted to in front of so many witnesses. Yang always took opportunities like that… "I'm not bothered about losing, just feel like I'm not really getting much chance to improve."

"You're not the only one." Blake whispered as a loud thud drew her attention back to the combat ring, where Jaune had slammed painfully into the floor. To his credit he tucked his shoulder quickly and rolled back into readiness with his shield in position. With both combatants being purely melee Jaune clearly felt he didn't need to rush, and slowly edged his way back into striking range of Cardin. The leader of team CRDL hardly seemed to react, his face set in a determined frown but lacking his usual confidence or taunting behaviour. It seemed like they weren't the only ones who had experienced a harsh wake-up call in the last week or so.

The moment Jaune was in range Cardin launched an overhead attack with his mace, using the slightly longer range of the haft of the two-handed weapon to force him on the defensive. Jaune blocked the strike with his shield, but the force of it almost looked like it would make him crumple and Blake winced in sympathy. Even though she wasn't too familiar with the use of a shield, she did know that you didn't want to block heavy weapons if you could help it, it was better to try and deflect them to the side using their own momentum.

Jaune seemed to have a plan though, using his shield to lock Cardin's weapon above him, while he cut at Cardin's legs with his sword. It was a good plan that might have worked, had the force of Jaune's blow been weakened by how staggered he was. Cardin saw it coming and was able to dodge back, just.

"Close." Yang complimented from the side. "I wonder if he was trying to copy what I did with P-money."

Blake said nothing, but nodded to say she had heard. Honestly that might be the case, if such a tactic could work on Pyrrha Nikos, then Jaune was surely going to take notice of it, since he faced her in combat almost every night.

The two combatants backed off, and Blake could see Jaune taking a quick look at his aura and grimacing. From her position she could see that it had only fallen by a tiny amount, no doubt damage he took from his block. But it still meant Cardin had drawn first blood.

Once again, Cardin stood still and waited for Jaune to approach. Apparently he knew full well the range advantage he had on Jaune, and wanted to make use of it. The weaknesses of two-handed weapons wasn't in effect their speed, but rather the commitment one had to make to the strike. There was no turning your blow at the last second, not when you were swinging around something that heavy. What's more it also required strong footing, so if you were moving forwards and the enemy suddenly attacked, it was difficult to back up, take the correct stance, and then rear back to strike…. Better to stand still and be patient.

The problem was that Jaune didn't have an answer to it. Pyrrha could have shot Cardin down, or even used her javelin as a spear to out-range him. Blake could have either shot him or used Gambol Shroud as a whip to force him into movement. Jaune had to walk into melee with a man who was clearly physically stronger than him.

But then… wasn't that exactly what he had been doing recently, taking down Ursa and Beowolves who in terms of muscle mass, far outweighed his own ability? Blake's yellow eyes narrowed as she watched Jaune's face carefully. What was different for him?

_Why isn't he fighting properly!?_

The two met and exchanged blows once more. This time Jaune had fallen back to using his shield to deflect blows that he could not dodge, reinforcing Blake's opinion that the earlier block had been an attempt at that new trick, rather than a mistake. Lacking any way of defending against Jaune when his mace was turned aside, Cardin had taken to using his shoulder to charge or check Jaune whenever he was overextended. Pushing Jaune off-balance before the blonde knight could capitalise on the openings.

_Still, Jaune has the advantage in those situations. I'm sure he could meet Cardin's attacks with his own if he tried. Jaune does have two weapons at the end of the day…_

But he didn't seem to be willing to do so. It was more like he was committing himself to either attack or defend, but was taking just a little too long on each one. Letting Cardin keep him on the defensive by simply attacking him with unrelenting aggression.

"Jaune's going to lose unless he pulls something out of his ass." Yang sighed, her disappointment clear, and Blake could understand it. As quiet as Cardin was being, both the teams still had bad experiences with him and would have liked to see him knocked down a few pegs. Blake was certainly one of them.

"I don't get it." Blake admitted quietly, making sure that only Yang could hear her. "He fought with much more purpose on our mission."

"Maybe that's his problem." Yang shrugged. "He isn't attacking with his full force because he doesn't want to hurt anyone."

"While I could agree that fits Jaune's mentality… this is _Cardin._" Blake emphasised as she pointed at the taller man. "I know Jaune's forgiving, but even he must be feeling frustrated enough to get angry and fight harder."

Jaune _was_ patient and gentle… but he was still human, and even Blake for all her pretences of being calm and collected would sometimes get angry during training. Not that it had helped her against Yang… But it certainly did give her fuel when she was fighting anyone else.

"Well Jaune certainly doesn't look like he's putting all his force behind his blows. They're too slow, he lacks aggression. I should know, considering my semblance."

Lacking aggression. That certainly seemed to speak the truth about Jaune here… while Cardin's blows were heavy and deliberate, Jaune's were hesitant and almost probing. Even the ones that struck Cardin only seemed to chip away at his aura, where they should have caused big drops.

Blake found herself feeling frustrated at seeing it happening. Whether he was doing this on purpose or not, it was a ridiculous habit to get into. Yang didn't pull her punches against Ruby, because she knew that doing so would only make Ruby weaker. It was a common problem for people new to sparring, but she had thought Jaune was beyond that.

A flash of anger seemed to appear on his face, before vanishing behind his usual expression, catching Blake's eyes immediately. So he _was_ getting annoyed, but why didn't he use that anger? It almost looked like he was doing his best to push it down instead…

For whatever reason he was doing it, it wasn't working. As Cardin eventually managed to wear him down, Jaune's arm no doubt struggling in pain from the all the blows, before his shield was finally batted aside. To Blake's surprise, rather than use an overhead attack to deliver a punishing blow to the weakened knight, Cardin instead used the pommel of his weapon to strike Jaune in the face, knocking him backwards onto his back.

"The match is over!" Glynda Goodwitch shouted out as the dome dimmed and closed down. Cardin stepping back from the panting blonde, and walking back to his team. He wasn't polite enough to offer Jaune a hand up like Pyrrha had, or most others did. But at the very least he didn't seem interested in taunting Jaune, or trying to injure him further…

"Mr Arc, you _must_ use your weapons to full advantage. I would have expected to see you use your shield as a weapon in there." She chastised as Jaune made his way off the stage towards them.

"That was good Jaune, you lasted so long!" Pyrrha praised as he reached them, rushing over to him and offering him a towel as well as some water to drink, as he slumped down onto his bench, greedily guzzling at the bottle.

"Yeah, you've come a long way from when you started." Ruby cheered as she patted his back, bending over his shoulder. Jaune laughed at the words but thanked them as they continued to talk about the fight.

Blake however, felt irritated. She didn't know if it was irritation at him, or even at Pyrrha or Ruby. Jaune's lack of performance here wasn't just a matter of him winning competitions or something, this was training for him to _survive_. And if Pyrrha and Ruby were always making excuses for him, and telling him it was okay… well then, he wasn't going to improve, was he?

"Face of thunder there kit-kat." Yang commented with a grin, as Blake quickly hid her expression as best she was able. "What's up?"

"I just don't like how they're pushing off his loss." She admitted with a sigh. "He could do better, and I bet he _wants_ to do better. So why are they ignoring the issue?"

"Hmm. I think it should be fairly obvious why they don't want to upset him." Yang laughed as she rubbed Blake's hair _again!_ "Still, if you've got any ideas on how he can improve, then why don't _you_ tell him."

Why didn't she? That was a good point, which coming from Yang was probably a worrying thought. Blake wasn't afraid to potentially lose Jaune's attention if what she said hurt him… so what would it hurt to help him out a little?

Not that she was willing to take over Pyrrha's training each night; that was way too much involvement and would really cut into her study time. But she could afford to give him an hour or two she supposed.

"I might." She mumbled aloud, before catching the grin on Yang's face. "But I'm only doing this to help him, not because I'm into him or anything."

"Of course, of course!" Yang assured unconvincingly.

_Ugh… blondes…_

Still… the question was how to arrange such a thing? With what ridiculous things Pyrrha, and maybe Ruby, were thinking… it would be a definite no-no to walk up to him and ask if she could take over his training sessions tonight. Similarly, she didn't want to just find him later on; because if he was already exhausted from sparring with Pyrrha then he wouldn't be able to do much with her.

As the next two combatants were drawn up onto the platform to compete, Blake drew out her scroll and began to type a message to the blonde.

_I noticed something about your fight that could help you out. Can you meet me at the training rooms at 8pm? Don't spar with Pyrrha or you'll be too tired._

_Don't tell anyone! I don't want Yang to make up some stupid stories!_

_-Blake._

That should be enough information for him, and it also gave a good excuse as to why she wanted him to keep it a secret, one that he would understand all too well. She didn't know if he was aware of the rumours going around about the two of them, well mostly between Yang and Pyrrha… but either way she wasn't really willing to broach _that_ with him.

Thumbing the send button she waited to see if Jaune would receive it. After a few minutes he seemed to look at his scroll, before turning to look at her. He looked confused.

_Yes or no?_ She asked internally, tilting her head to the side slightly to show she wanted an answer. Thankfully he seemed to get the message since he gave her a few quick nods, before turning back to the fight happening in front of them.

She just hoped she wouldn't regret this.

* * *

><p>The rest of the day passed easily enough, a few lessons with Professor Port was never a particularly difficult task if you only read ahead. Naturally there had been a small scuffle between Weiss and Ruby over the latter's falling asleep at her desk.<p>

For the past few hours Blake had been preparing herself for tonight, letting Ruby and Weiss know she was going to be reading at the library until late, even if Yang already knew the truth. She was still a little worried inside, not at the training she would be helping with, but of the idea that Pyrrha might have tagged along with Jaune.

She didn't have anything against Pyrrha of course… but if she was right, then it might be the champion which was causing the biggest issues with Jaune.

"Blake, you there?" A male voice whispered uncertainly from the door. Blake's faunus eyes zeroed in despite the darkness to see a blonde head peeking nervously into the training room. The very same one they had been fighting in earlier that day.

"In here Jaune." She called easily, flicking on the local lights around a single combat ring. She could have turned on the main floodlights, but was worried that someone outside would see it and investigate. Though students were allowed to train in their own time, they weren't technically supposed to use the official training rooms for it, and Blake certainly wasn't supposed to be training.

"Uh, hey." He greeted as he hurried over to her, and she let out a sigh of relief at the fact that not only was he alone, but that he had brought his equipment with him.

"Hey." She whispered back. "What did you tell your team you were doing?"

"I told them I was going to the library to see if the next issue of X-ray and Vav was there." She rolled her eyes at the excuse but smiled regardless. As lies went it was a pretty ridiculous and yet ingenious one. Looking for a comic book in a library was _so_ Jaune. And everyone knew of his obsession with that particular comic.

"That's good." She finally spoke back, before clamming up in sudden uncertainty herself. She knew what she had to say, but had no idea how to actually bring any of it up.

"So…" Jaune dragged out while he looked to one side and scratched his head. Her eyes zeroed in on the nervous tick, and she hoped he himself didn't think she had less than honourable intentions in inviting him here.

"Training." She simply replied. "I watched your fight with Cardin. Yang and I were thinking about the things you were doing right and wrong." She didn't want to anger him by suggesting that Pyrrha's training wasn't satisfactory, so she would have to draw him into it slowly.

"Really? Please tell me!" Jaune begged with an ecstatic expression on his face as he surged forwards, his hands landing on her bare arms. It took her looking at his hands for a mere second for him to remove them as if he had been burned. "S-sorry!" He apologised, stammering and blushing. "I just would really like to know how to win."

"Then I'll do my best to help." Blake assured him, hoping to calm him. Though it had been a surprise for him to grab her like that, he didn't need to go as far as blushing and feeling embarrassed about it. Then again, she was only here to help his confidence in fighting, not with women. That could be someone else's responsibility.

_And good luck to them, they'll need it…_

"What do you and Pyrrha normally do when you're training?" She asked quickly, already knowing a little of what they did, but wanting him to point it out himself.

"We spar most of the time. Then she tells me what I did wrong, and shows me how to improve on it."

"Have you ever beaten her?"

"…No." He looked aside when he said this, a frown on his lips.

_It sucks losing all the time._ The words that Yang had uttered earlier came back to her. That was from a person who was possibly the most confident girl in the entire school, so it must be a damn site worse for Jaune.

"I think that might be part of the problem." She admitted with a shrug. "If you're always facing someone who is better than you, then you can't really improve all that much. That's why Goodwitch has us face those on our level."

"I haven't even beaten Cardin though…" He groaned as he hung his head slightly, causing Blake to sigh.

"Well tonight we'll be sparring a little. At the very least I'll be an easier opponent than Pyrrha."

_Though harder than Cardin._ She didn't say out loud. She wasn't going to throw a fight with Jaune to make him feel better, but even though she could pick apart Cardin in a matter of seconds, it didn't mean Jaune didn't have a chance against her. It was kind of like Yang and Pyrrha. Blake also had some of the same weaknesses against an opponent with a shield.

"Aren't you injured still… I'm sure Miss Goodwitch said you're not allowed to exercise."

Ugh, trust him to remember that. But she hadn't come here without any plans.

"Wait-wha?" Jaune stammered as the light brown dome sprang into place around them, locking them into the ring.

"I had the dome control set to my scroll." Blake admitted as she stashed it away in her pockets. "It's easy enough to do, and most of the older students do it to practice outside of classes. It will come down if either of our auras reaches 25%, or when I end it."

"Blake, you shouldn't be doing this if you haven't recovered yet!"

"I'm fine." She sighed in annoyance. "I'm not being stubborn for the sake of it Jaune. The Doctor's instructions were simply given to rest my muscles. I am at no risk of injury when we're using the domes."

But if he refused to fight back then he might be at some risk. She thought to herself as she detached Gambol Shroud, leaving her with a hilt in each hand as she looked at him challengingly. Apparently sensing her decision he drew his sword and deployed his sheathe into his shield, holding it before him.

"We stop at 25%?" He asked uncertainly.

"I promise Jaune. I'm here to help you, not trick you into anything. If I shout to stop though, because I have something to say, then I want you to stop."

"Okay. Sure." He took a deep breath and settled himself.

"You make the first move." She offered. "The fight will begin when you move." Though it would be the better combat decision for her to shoot him as he approached, it wouldn't do anything to help him improve. His problem wasn't closing the distance, it was when he was in melee. So she would let him achieve that.

Knowing she had a gun on her, Jaune was quick to charge in, covering the few metres between them in a few easy steps as he kept his shield before him. Blake stepped back easily enough, deciding at the last moment not to use her semblance, instead slipping to the side as his shield slammed into where she stood before.

For so soon after his lesson, it was good to see him take Goodwitch's advice to heart, even if his shield charge had missed. Now she stood on his left side, with his shield between his sword and her. It was a blind spot, and from the expression on his face he realised it.

Blake could have struck then, would have. But she wanted to see how he would react instead, and held herself back. Rather than attacking, he drew back, using his shield to cover himself as he brought her back in front of him. Once again he attacked, this time using his sword in a downwards slash, while keeping his shield to defend.

Blake knocked aside the sword with a light wave of one of her blades, raising an eyebrow at him at how easy it was for her. There was no contest. Physically, Jaune was far stronger than her. She should _not_ have been able to turn that strike away so easily.

He recovered easily enough, stepping into her guard before pausing for a brief second and spinning in place. This time his shield was given power by the centrifugal force of his spin, and she was forced to dodge back, knowing she wouldn't be able to take that blow easily.

It was a good move. But that second's hesitation when he had stepped into her guard had given her way too much time to react. What's more, that manoeuvre looked familiar. Having enough of letting him take the initiative, Blake struck with her right hand, nodding as his shield blocked the strike, even as she thrust with her left upwards towards his sternum. Surprisingly he was able to step back and take the blow with his shield, but he seemed uncertain on whether he should strike back at her or not.

He _was_ hesitating on his attacks, she could see that clearly now. It was odd though that his defence was so good, even against Cardin, but his offence was so weak. Against the Grimm he had been more balanced, and had reaped his fair share of opponents.

So why was his shield work so instinctual, when his sword work was…

_Wait… instinctual. Could that be it?_ One reason for the hesitation might be that he was scared of hurting them, but considering that his most regular sparring partner could kick his ass seven times in a night, she doubted that could be the case. Another reason might be that he was overthinking his attacks, trying to analyse too many things too quickly, and losing the opportunity.

How could she test it though?

Quickly she upped the ante of her attacks, dodging left and right and striking at both his sides to put his shield arm in increasing levels of stress. She wasn't like Cardin of Pyrrha, she was an agility fighter and she wasn't afraid to take any opportunity to slip behind you and attack where you were weakest. Manoeuvrability was her main advantage, and if Jaune _was_ trying to overthink things then he would have no hope against her. She was too unpredictable for it.

Again her blades clashed against his shield as she ran about him, drawing him into chasing her before flipping over his guard and attacking from behind. His shield continued to keep him safe, even as he pivoted, rolled, ducked and dodged between her attacks. His expression was strained however, with sweat starting to bead on his forehead and a frustrated curl to his lips. He hadn't made a single effort to attack her, because he couldn't find an opening.

"Come on Jaune. You can do better than this." She taunted, feeling an uncomfortable similarity to the racist Cardin as she did so. Speaking during a fight wasn't her style at all, but there certainly was one way to _force_ him to attack without thinking about it.

"I've offered to help you, but if you refuse to even try…" His face twisted a little further, before he let out a long breath and schooled it back to calm expression. Blake narrowed her eyes once more. He was pulling back his temper, or trying to. But it was still there.

After a few more passes Blake made the conscious decision to slow herself down and overextended with her next strike, her blade clattering off his shield even as her left side was left completely open. Call it dramatic, or over the top. The fact that she had done it on purpose should have been obvious to anyone, but he was too focused to notice, and made the strike. Blake snapped Gambol Shroud back into one blade and used it in her right hand to catch his blade, only for her eyes to widen at the force behind his strike, which knocked her completely off balance.

"Stop!" She shouted quickly as she dived to the side and rolled away. Thankfully Jaune hadn't followed up on the blow, and had stopped when she told him to. "Better!" She praised as she wiped a tiny amount of perspiration from her brow and walked over to him. He seemed to be breathing heavily, but gave her a smile in thanks regardless.

"Your last strike was about five times stronger than your others. What were you feeling when you made it?"

"I was… well I was angry I guess. Not _at_ you. But just that I wasn't doing very well." She nodded to show she understood, her mind drawing back to the suspicions she had earlier.

"That's natural. We hit harder when we're angry, try harder." She paused as she looked into his blue eyes, remembering that one time he shouted at her in the forests outside Elgard. He had been angry there too. "Tell me Jaune… what do you normally feel when you're sparring?"

"I try to keep a calm head." He responded easily. "Pyrrha says a calm mind is a strong mind for noticing openings. She says angry people make mistakes."

That was true in theory, she supposed. Though she didn't like the suggestion that those who fought with emotion were weaker. Her partner certainly wasn't weak.

"I think that makes sense for Pyrrha…" Blake agreed softly as she looked at him. "But I'm not sure it makes sense for _you._"

"We both use the same weapons though." He argued with a shrug, but didn't seem to dismiss her idea.

"True." Blake conceded, before she pointed at his sword. "But you don't fight with the same style. Pyrrha is a technical fighter. She thinks everything through and has a hundred little tricks and manoeuvres she can use to get an edge. The big thing though is her weapon. She doesn't just have a sword Jaune. She has a sword, a spear that can also be a javelin, and a gun."

"Her flexibility in the weapons she uses gives her an incredible edge over most people, and definitely you. She can afford to think things through, because she literally can have an answer to almost any situation. You don't have that luxury."

As she spoke she watched as his eyes trailed down to his weapon. She hoped he wasn't taking the comments as an attack on his weapon. For while it wasn't as impressive as their own, she knew it had some familial value to him, and to be honest it was more than fine a weapon. Not everyone used weapons that mecha-shifted.

"So I won't ever be as good as she is?" He whispered aloud after a few seconds thought.

"I didn't say that!" Blake interrupted quickly, stepping into his guard to look into his eyes. "Only that you won't be as good as her if you're trying to fight _like_ her." She stepped back and turned around, walking back so that she was a few metres from him again. "I think Pyrrha _does_ want to help you, and she would be thrilled to know you're trying out her style. But I don't think it suits you. You're hesitating because you're looking for openings, or considering all the little things she does. But the fact is that she has years' experience in doing that in competitions."

"We're here to fight Grimm though, and you don't have the luxury or time to figure out those tricks like she did. So stop thinking and just go for it."

"What if the attack fails?" He asked uncertainly as he hefted his sword before his eyes to look up the blade. Blake waited for his eyes to meet hers once more before she grinned and shrugged.

"Who cares? If it goes wrong then you lose a little aura but learn to either not try it again or change it in some way. Do you think Pyrrha learned all those little tricks from people? She probably made hundreds of mistakes before she perfected them. You need to make your own. So don't hesitate, just give it a go, in an environment where there is no real risk of injury."

"Okay. I'll give it a go. I appreciate this Blake, I don't think I said that." He quickly rolled his arms to loosen his muscles as he fell back into a fighting stance. Blake meanwhile just shook her head.

"It's what friends do. Now fight me."

Once more he charged at her, though this time she noticed he had his sword arm held back in preparation for a strike. She ducked beneath the blade that would have smashed into her shoulders, and quickly separated Gambol Shroud as she struck up towards him with both blades. The whistling above her made it clear that he had put power behind it; it seemed he was finally willing to just commit and give it a go. Her blades skittered off his cursed shield, the defensive article once again thwarting her, even as she grinned and flipped backwards firing a single shot towards his face during the brief moment she was upside down and facing him.

He blocked it easily, and chased after her, eager to keep the pressure on while she might be off-balance from her acrobatics. Blake had learned to adapt to that a long time ago though, and quickly released one of her blades as she landed, before performing a pirouette with a force and skill a ballet dancer would have been envious of. Her ribbon span around her angrily, and Jaune wisely backed away from the sharp spinning blade rather than risk walking into that maelstrom.

Blake didn't bother to catch the blade, simply letting the ribbon coil loosely around her left arm as she held the other blade right handed. The left blade continued to lazily spin and loop as she released and coiled the ribbon in such a way as to keep the momentum going.

Perhaps it was unfair. Gambol shroud was a bizarre weapon to fight against, unpredictable and unusual in a way that could possibly have seen her do well in the competitive scene had she the time or inclination. Jaune didn't seem certain on whether he should pay more attention to the spinning blade, or the one in her hand.

Not giving him a chance to decide she leapt into combat, feinting a strike towards his front, before placing both her hands palms down onto his shield and using it as a prop to propel her over his form. Spinning in mid-air she propelled the loose blade into his unprotected back, her eyes narrowing as he swayed to one side to dodge it. Not bothering to turn to find her with his eyes he simply span on his feet, slashing in a wide arc with his sword in the rough direction he knew she would be in.

_Better!_ Blake commented internally as she locked her blades and parried the blow. She knew she would come off the worse from it, but the alternative was literally landing on the sword, so she took the better of two bad options. The force from the strike sent her backwards, with her arms straining and her aura dipping a tiny amount.

"First blood I guess." She quipped towards him, doing her best not to roll her eyes at the frankly amazed look in his eyes. It really was nothing, little more than a dent in her aura, but it still meant he had come from the trade better off than she had, and that clearly was something he was not used to.

_Unsurprising since he fights Pyrrha. It makes sense that his defence is so good, when he has to learn to defend against her. But Pyrrha can't improve his offence because she is too good. He expects his strikes to fail, and so puts less effort behind them, perhaps subconsciously seeking to save energy on what he always assumes will be failed attacks._

He wasn't wrong to try and conserve energy, and a failed attack was dangerous as it created openings. But if you never put your full effort behind every strike, then you would never succeed.

"Time to up the ante." She warned as she charged him once more, this time emulating Cardin in forcing him onto the defensive with punishingly fast strikes. His shield flickered quickly as he did his best to block her attacks, but with her own naturally impressive faunus reflexes and speed she was able to slip a few past his guard, scoring minor blows on his arms and thighs.

Again his expression tightened as he struggled to find a way out of the situation he was in. Blake knew it was difficult. If she refused to let up then he really couldn't break away from when she had two faster weapons.

"Don't think!" She hissed at him as she struck. "Just do something, learn and adapt."

"Not easy when you won't _let up!"_ He gritted back as he used his sword to turn away a strike at his face, his eyes flashing with frustration.

"Stop trying to hide your anger!" She whispered back, taking a moment to drive her knee towards his groin, only for his to thigh to come across and take the damage. "You've got emotions, use them!"

"You're annoying!" Jaune growled back, his forehead covered in sweat from the pace she was setting and his patience finally fraying. Blake only grinned down at him as she swung her left blade in a wide arc, knowing he would take it on his shield.

He did not.

The blade slammed into his side, cutting a huge chunk out of his aura but not enough to put him out of the fight. Blake's eyes widened in sudden horror as she saw the shield, which he had not used to stop the blow, rocketing towards her face.

The blow was punishing, the force of it alone sending her sailing even as her shoulder slammed into the ground. Instincts took over as she rolled to create distance between them and staggered to her feet dazed. Her aura had taken most of the damage, but force was still force, and she felt dizzy from the powerful blow.

He'd took the blow in order to trade one with her. And no doubt he'd accurately figured out that her attacks would do less to him than his to her… especially with the size of his aura.

_I'd feel proud, if I didn't feel so dizzy._

"Not bad." She gritted out past the dizziness, before twirling her blade and launching it at him to give her a few seconds to recover. The strike was clumsy at best given her situation. Jaune grinned as he angled his shield downwards, knocking her flying blade downwards before he grabbed the ribbon with his sword arm and quickly coiled it around his own wrist.

_Damn it!_ Blake cursed as she released her weapon quickly. She hadn't ever lost Gambol Shroud in combat before, but she couldn't get into a tug of war with a guy that much stronger than her. Not when he had a sword too. It was better to let him have it, and fight with her fists, or try to reclaim it.

"Forgetting something Blake?" He taunted as he tugged on the ribbon, the coil going taut as a pulling sensation on her arm caused her eyes to go wide. She'd forgotten while she was staggered and unable to think straight, she'd coiled the ribbon around her left arm earlier!

Dropping to her knees in a sudden panic she reached for the discarded end of her weapon, intent in using it as a gun to shoot him, or even cut her own chord if needs be. He seemed to disagree though, and the moment she started to reach for it he tugged sharply on the rope, pulling her off her feet and causing her to stumble towards him.

The world flipped from her point of view as she was half-dragged, half-staggered across the floor towards where he was pulling her. Her own efforts to fight it almost useless, as his strength had caused the ribbon coiled around her arm to tighten.

She wasn't willing to go down without a fight though, and swung her right arm towards his face when she was close enough. He took the blow easily enough, adrenaline apparently letting him ignore the stinging as he lifted her arms above her head and pinned her against the nearby wall of the dome.

Blake froze. Her arms pinned above her, tangled in her own ribbon as he kept her pinned against the crackling barrier wall with his body. He was grinning down at her challengingly, his blue eyes barely inches away, even as his chest brushed against her own. They were both panting, her breasts rubbing against his breastplate each time she breathed in. And they were both sweating too she noticed, as a single bead rolled down his forehead, across his cheek, before stopping at his lips.

To her horror. She felt heat pooling in her stomach, and an uncomfortable urge for her to push her body off the wall into him. Her mind went blank, even as her eyes dilated and her breathing quickened.

_Say stop. We said we would stop if I say it… say it…_

She didn't say it.

"Well?" Jaune whispered to her, his face still so close to her own as he grinned down at her. Joy, pride and something _else_ in his eyes. She didn't know what she was supposed to say, or what she wanted, but she tilted her head back instinctively.

Before she could think any further there was a low hum as the wall behind her gave way, both their eyes widening as they tumbled backwards, with Jaune pinning her there had been nothing but the barrier holding them up, and without that they crashed to the floor.

Blake hit the floor first, her back rear and legs cushioning her fall, even as a heavy weight fell onto her. Her eyes widened as Jaune collapsed on top of her, one of his hands still tangled between her two, while the other landed to the side of her, half-propping him up and stopping him from crushing her.

Despite that though, their faces were so close. She could feel his breath on her lips, barely the tiniest distance between them as his blue eyes stared into her own wide yellow orbs.

"MR ARC! MISS BELLADONNA!" A sharp voice practically _hissed _from nearby, causing Blake's already wide eyes to almost roll out of her skull in terror. Just to the left of their faces was a pair of legs, which she followed up to meet the furious eyes of Miss Glynda Goodwitch.

"You can explain this…. this… _debauchery_! To the Headmaster at once!"

* * *

><p><strong>Oh wow, I'm such a shitter. Seriously, the last time I used a cliff hanger was when they were in mortal peril, and yet this time I'm sure it feels just as bad for Blake. And here we go, their first real romantic interaction. I hope it was pleasing for you. Blake's too analytical for her own good, so she needed a sudden shock to open her up to the idea (she's been denying it for so long, did she not read the pairings at the top?). Well this will shock her.<strong>

**Some may disagree with Jaune losing to Cardin, but I hope I explained it in the chapter enough to be honest (after all he beat Blake, he IS stronger than Cardin). I also wanted to really show why Pyrrha is a renowned champion here. I'm sure some may disagree on my whole fighting analysis thing, I asked my MMA instructor for advice on it, and he explained about technical fighters, and also how anger is a good emotion to use. I'm afraid we're not about to see Darth Blake anytime soon. But with Pyrrha's flexible weapon... wow, I just imagine her as having an answer to everything, and being a real monster in hunter vs hunter combat. I'm sure she is more balanced on their level vs Grimm. **

**I hope you all enjoy!**


	13. Chapter 13

**Well here we go again! I've had a lot of wonderful reviews, and some truly interesting PM conversations with people, as well as one which was less fun. Some people are unfortunately so set in their opinions that they cause me actual pain... You can insult my writing if you wish, but please do not insult me, my friends or the characters themselves. People can have their favourite characters, that's cool. But I'm trying to give all the characters depth, so I don't need to hear that Yang is shallow, or that Weiss would backstab people, etc...**

**I won't go into detail. Can't be arsed really, and I doubt many others would share his view since it was so weird. Jaune fanboy, then followd it up with the `I'm like Jaune` bit... lol. So... a fanboy of yourself, I take it? **

** Bah! Onwards we go! **

**Note - I have put up ideas for a 3rd story on my profile, which I may write up front before publishing. That way it would not interfere with this fic, as I would have the first 10-15 chapters written of it, and would post them once a week or so. Please if you like the idea, offer some feedback, either review, or if you have questions/want to chat, then PM me! The pairing may seem like it could not make sense, given the circumstances, but trust in me, I have a strategy. **

**P.s. Teucrian, I liked your idea so much I'm stealing it! Here's a credit for the ears, if you know what I mean – wink wink.**

**Professor Arc - Sometime later today or tomorrow.**

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><p><strong>Beta: <strong>Super-Saiyan Cyndaquill

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><p><strong>Chapter 12<strong>

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><p>Blake had never considered herself a particularly emotional person. That wasn't to say she didn't feel emotion, in fact she was very emotional with her team and loved them all dearly, especially after they had learned of her past, and still accepted her. It was just that the pinnacle of showing emotion for her was often a small smile, a slight watering of the eyes, a stern glare at times.<p>

Never before had she felt such a confusing myriad of emotions as she felt right now however. Mortification, embarrassment, guilt… and lest we forget… unbridled terror.

"Never in all my years as a teacher!" The furious blonde woman hissed like a snake, her heels clicking loudly in the silence as she paced around the young pair. Blake resisted the urge to pull her knees up to her chest and perch on her seat in a ball, but couldn't stop her ears from flattening beneath her bow, even as her shoulders hunched together.

She didn't dare look to see what reaction Jaune was having to the stern woman's anger. Just seeing him would cause a burst of embarrassment and horror to go through her again, even as her mind recalled what had nearly happened in that dome.

"Not only disrespect for the staff here, but also highly technical, expensive and _dangerous_ equipment!" Miss Goodwitch continued as she circled around them, out of Blake's sight. The young faunus resisted the urge to turn in her seat and follow what her instincts were deeming was a very serious threat to her safety. Instead she kept her amber eyes firmly locked onto the tiles of the floor between her legs. They were plain and clean, roughly three inches by three inches… she had been memorising them for a while now.

She knew the teacher had the wrong impression of what they were doing… but the worst part was that Blake could not refute it. She knew very well what her instincts had wanted when she had arched her body towards the man holding he- _No! Don't think about it!_ But how could she not? She. Blake Belladonna. Had been turned on, aroused even, by Jaune Arc.

"Are you listening to me!?" Goodwitch's voice questioned angrily from behind Blake, even as the sound of her crop cracking into her hand sounded. Blake jumped slightly in shock at the noise, her eyes racing up to meet the calm ones of Headmaster Ozpin, who was sat at his desk in front of them. Blake nodded eagerly, not taking her eyes from the man.

"Miss Belladonna." The white-haired man began, placing down his coffee mug as he leant his elbows on his desk and leaned forwards, hiding his lips behind interlaced fingers. "Mr Arc." He continued. "Would you like to tell me why you felt the training domes would be a suitable… location… for your little rendezvous?"

Blake let her eyes drop from to his desk as her head dipped, a clear sign of submission. It was best to say nothing in these situations, she knew that. They were already in enough trouble without her making it worse… if they were lucky they might only receive some detentions…

"It wasn't like that!" Jaune shouted out suddenly, drawing her eyes to him, before she looked away again. His face had been red, which meant he was embarrassed as well… which meant he _knew_ what had nearly happened as well, and Oh Gods, that meant he realised what she had felt. "Miss Goodwitch misunderstood... we weren't doing _that!"_

Even so… Blake wished he would stop talking. Before he dug a deeper hole for them.

"Do you mean to tell me Mr Arc." The Headmaster interrupted quickly. "That you broke into a sealed room, and used highly dangerous machinery for your own training purposes? While Miss Belladonna specifically ignored medical advice given by our doctors? That is quite the transgression."

There was further silence as Blake wished she could somehow retreat further into herself to spare the embarrassment. This was a disaster… ignoring medical advice, risking her life… this could mean the end of her career as a huntress…

"Maybe we _were_ doing the debauchery thing then..." Jaune negotiated with a worried expression on his face. "...Which has the worst punishment?"

_Oh Gods Jaune… Please stop talking…_ She begged in her mind as a keening whine of frustration escaped her lips.

"I don't think you realise how serious this is!" Miss Goodwitch boomed from behind them, her hands settling on the backs of their seats with a finality that almost seemed damning.

"Glynda." The Headmaster spoke simply, his eyes looking over their shoulders, apparently conferring between the two of them, before the woman released their chairs and stepped backwards.

"Such interactions between students are not uncommon." The man began slowly, as he looked into their eyes. "We are a combat school for Hunters and Huntresses, and many of you are certainly _of age_ … I also understand that the work can be stressful, especially given the current situation with the Grimm."

_Please, enough… just give us our punishment so I can stop panicking!_ She wanted to scream out loud. Patience had always been a strong point of hers; she wondered where it had all gone.

"That said, to do so in the training rooms was dangerous indeed. I have half a mind to bring your teams here to hear what you have done."

Blake's eyes shot open as her head rocketed up to look at the man in horror. _No!_ That could _not_ be allowed to happen! There was no way in Hell she would survive if Ruby, Weiss and Yang heard about this. Okay, mostly Ruby and Yang, but still! She had no idea what Ruby would think of her apparently _doing the deed_ with the guy she had a crush on… would she feel betrayed, angry? Would Blake even have a place on the team after?

And Yang!?

Blake wasn't sure if it was sympathy, empathy or pity that the Headmaster felt when he looked into her eyes, but he did settle his arms down on the table and let out a long sigh.

"But I will not." He added, as Blake let out a long sigh of relief. "In fact, I might be willing to let this whole fiasco lay as it is, should you ensure our faculty never again has to catch the two of you like this?"

"Of course!" Blake replied instantly, her spirits finally beginning to rise. "This won't happen again sir." She added, more as a promise and warning to herself than reassurance to him. The most galling part was that he had said _let them catch_, as though he fully expected the two of them to wander off and … she didn't even dare finish the thought.

"The two of you are dismissed." The man ordered, allowing Blake to warily climb to her feet, half-uncertain if she should be waiting for the other shoe to drop, but unwilling to look a gift horse in the mouth.

"Thank you, sir." Jaune whispered, his face still red, but his voice grateful as the two of them quickly made their way from the room.

"Oh, and Miss Belladonna?" The man's voice caused her to pause at the exit, as she turned to regard him. "Gambol Shroud is an impressive weapon… but do try to refrain from using it as a … _toy_, won't you?"

Her face instantly flushed at the innuendo as she slipped from the room and let the door close behind her, before burying her face into her hands and muffling a silent scream of frustration.

"Well…" Her companion spoke nervously. "That wasn't so bad."

Blake looked at him from between her fingers, as if seeing some kind of repugnant alien she couldn't quite identify, before she let out a long huff and turned away. Not as bad… _not as bad_… easy for him to say, this was a disaster for her! She ignored his calls as she stormed away furiously, heading back to her room to crawl under her covers and wish the night had never happened.

This was the _last_ time she tried to help anyone, if this was the reward she got!

But at the end of the day, as she stormed back to her room, it wasn't the telling off that was causing her the most internal strife. Nor even the embarrassment from being caught by a teacher in such a precarious situation – after all she _knew_ it was a misunderstanding, so why feel embarrassed?

It was what else she knew, that scared her. The problem with being so analytical is that it was hard to lie to yourself, and she would not be so hypocritical as to try.

She had _wanted_ Jaune Arc to do something to her.

She wasn't sure what… not specifically anyway. The heat she had felt, the desire, she knew it was sexual. But she'd been acting on instinct more than anything, and for once not those _faunus instincts_ that everyone assumed they had. No, it was the instincts of a woman towards a man they found attractive. She'd wanted him to press closer into her, she had wanted his lips on her skin… ached for it, even.

_This can't be happening!_ She argued in her mind. _I just had a conversation with Yang, and I didn't lie, I don't like Jaune's stuttering personality…_

"_Would you like him if he was always like that?"_ She recalled Yang asking in an effort to trap and embarrass her… and she'd deflected it by pointing out that he wasn't always like that. But in that fight… when he had overpowered her. He _had_ been.

And she had _loved_ every second of it.

_This is an unmitigated disaster._ _Ruby, my team leader, has a crush on the guy… as does the strongest girl in the Academy. And both have better claims than I._ It wasn't just a case of them having liked him for longer. But they actually liked how he normally acted, while Blake only liked… or was turned on by at least… this… other side of him.

She was asking him to be someone he wasn't. Obviously it was someone he _could_ be, or he wouldn't be able to do it, but that wasn't the point. Love, if she wanted to go that far, was about accepting people as they were. Not forcing them to fit what you desired and wanted.

That raised the question though, did she love Jaune?

No. She did not. Not that kind of love anyway. The word had always been a confusing one to her, mainly because others threw it around so easily. Blake loved her team, she loved Ruby, Yang and Weiss. She also loved Beacon and her time here, she loved Jaune in a similar manner, though not as much as she did her teammates.

She liked to think romantic love was wanting to be with a person on a more permanent basis, be that marriage or a long term relationship. And the idea of marrying Jaune didn't spark any real feelings within her, neither joy nor disgust. Similarly, the idea of Ruby or Pyrrha getting together with him didn't cause her to feel the sharp stab of jealousy she would have expected to feel if she _was_ looking to pursue a relationship with the boy.

No. Blake Belladonna wasn't in love with Jaune Arc. She had simply _lusted_ after him… which was only about ten times worse!

At least with love she could have written it off as that old adage about love being blind, or making no sense! Now she had to contend with the idea that she wanted to jump his bones in a dark corridor, and that she had a hitherto unknown fetish for dominant men! _Don't use Gambol Shroud as a toy…_ Gods, could she ever look at her weapon the same way again after that comment? Making the ribbon so strong had made sense at the time. It protected the weapon, and if necessary could be used to restrain someone.

_Oh it worked for restraint alright…_

_Gahhh!_ She screamed in her mind as she wrenched open the door to her room and slammed it behind her, leaning back on it as though to lock all the conflicting thoughts outside.

Purple, silver and blue eyes stared back at her in shock.

Blake fought to quickly bring down her flush as she coughed and stood up from the door. Okay, so her team had apparently decided to stay awake a little longer than usual, that was perfectly fine. The day was already incredibly crap, so why not add this to it as well!?

"Oh for God's sake…" Weiss mumbled as she wrinkled her nose and turned away from Blake, making the faunus raise an eyebrow in question. The two of them had been getting on well with one another, so she didn't really understand the girl's disgust.

"Oh… my… God!" Yang whispered out loud, her hands balling into fists beneath her chin in a move that single-handedly proved that yes, she and Ruby _were_ related. It was literally Ruby's cookie pose. "I see your trip to the library was…" She paused here and leaned forward, a dirty leer on her face. "Productive."

"Pardon?" Blake replied back quickly as she hastily walked to her bed and climbed under the covers, hoping to make it clear she wanted to just go to sleep and forget the day ever happened. She couldn't even bring herself to change into her usual night clothes.

"Well, just normally you wouldn't come back from the _library_ all sweaty, flushed and tired Blakey." The brawler leered as she hovered over Blake's form, causing the faunus to turn over so her back was facing her teammate. Time for operation stonewall all conversation.

"I've no idea what you're talking about." Blake grumbled back. That was her story, and she was sticking with it.

"I bet she was with Sun!" Ruby crowed, joining in with her sister. Blake grumbled but remained quiet, hoping to feign sleep. Sun, really? In a library…? That wasn't likely to happen, except for when he was following her around.

"Somehow I expected this of you, Yang." Weiss mumbled, as Blake pulled more covers over her face so she was wrapped into a cocoon of sheets.

Blake knew it would all blow over, come the morning.

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><p>It was not over come the morning. Blake refused to meet anyone's eyes as she stabbed her fried eggs viciously with her fork, enjoying watching the yolk bleed out in agony. Somehow a good night's sleep hadn't solved things as she had hoped it would.<p>

Yang had been just as obnoxious come the morning, slipping some teasing words in every time she had the chance, though thankfully she had kept quiet in front of team JNPR. Yang was many things, a flirt and a tease, but cruel she was not. Blake half-suspected it was because she didn't want anyone else to cash in on her fun.

Of course meeting team JNPR for breakfast came with its own complications, namely the nervous blonde who had taken one look at her before quickly looking away. That was fine by her though, she wasn't exactly ready to broach that issue with Jaune either, and she knew the shared embarrassment of their ordeal would go away naturally in time. Provided she ever got a chance to just relax without thinking about it.

If the other members of team JNPR knew anything, or suspected, then they were doing an admirable job of keeping quiet about it. The conversation was as meaningless and fast-paced as usual, and Jaune and her own lack of input was nothing out of the ordinary. Blake instead just busied herself in murdering her food, poking and prodding at it without actually eating it.

Weiss had been her closest ally since waking up. The girl was vaguely disappointed that Blake would apparently go make out with someone in the library, but willing to accept it so long as she didn't receive any sordid details. Ruby on the other hand had been ecstatic at the idea of Blake _finding someone_ and wanted to know everything about them. Yang had been… well… Yang.

Letting out a tired sigh, Blake tuned herself back into the conversation, apparently on dreams, as Nora had experienced another that she was recounting to the people.

"We stayed up late to study." Weiss spoke once the excitable bomber had finished. "I didn't get as much sleep as I normally would have, but at least we finished that assignment for Oobleck."

"I don't wanna see any more history." Ruby groaned in agreement as she downed a glass of milk like a man drowning his troubles in hard liqueur.

"That was a forty-page essay!" Jaune spoke in apparent amazement. "That we received two days ago."

"And now we don't have to worry about it." Yang bragged as she mimed a flicking motion towards Jaune's face. "Suck it."

"Maybe we should try and get some of it done…" Pyrrha mumbled contemplatively, prompting Nora and Jaune to give Yang dirty looks. "It'll be easier if we do it as a study group."

"Oh hey!" Nora suddenly crowed, apparently looking for something to distract Pyrrha with so they could escape what sounded like a particularly thankless and boring task. "That reminds me. Did you find that X-ray and Vav comic Jauney?"

"Huh?" The clueless boy in question asked.

"Y'know…" Nora reminded, rolling her eyes dramatically. "Last night you went to the library to find that comic, did you find it? You came back really late."

Blake's ears twitched slightly as she heard the sound of a metal piece of cutlery falling and clanging against porcelain, drawing her eyes across the table to Yang, who was sat with one empty hand still poised as if to hold a fork. Purple eyes were wide, her mouth wider still, as she stared directly at Blake.

Wait, what were they talking about!? Comic, the library- _Oh Shit!_ Yellow eyes shot around the table, categorising the situation in an instant. Everyone looked normal, Jaune looked uncomfortable. Ruby clueless. Pyrrha, as usual… Weiss had an expression of horrified distaste on her face as she looked at Blake, apparently she had connected the dots…

"Oh… my…" Yang began, her face lighting up as she placed both hands down on the table as if to stand up and shout something. Blake reacted instantly. Damage control had to be initiated before everything spiralled out of control.

Looking back on the situation, she wasn't sure quite what she had expected, or what she could have done better. But the connection that Nora had unwittingly brought up about her and Jaune… was definitely the last thing on people's minds… as runny egg ran down Yang's forehead, around her nose, and down across her lips… to drip from her chin. Another egg, rested atop her hair. And Blake was stuck, leaning across the table, with one arm outstretched as incriminating evidence.

"Not again!" A male voice cried out in the distance, as everyone within a three metre radius of Yang quickly found somewhere else to be.

Blake's yellow eyes, wide with panic, looked into purple ones as a bead of sweat dribbled down her own forehead.

Purple flashed to red.

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><p>"I had not expected to see you again so soon Miss Belladonna." The Headmaster greeted cordially as Blake imitated her pose from the previous day on the seat in front of his desk. This time, a different blonde sat next to her. Arms crossed, and a defiant expression on her face. At least her hair was clean again.<p>

Blake remained silent once more, hoping to emulate the miraculous feat that had escaped her punishment the last time. Even if she didn't honestly think it would work twice in a row.

"The damage this time was relatively minor." The blonde deputy behind the two of them reported. "Apparently Miss Xiao-Long was heavily focused on Miss Belladonna, so the furniture was spared. The table, however is a lost cause."

"Should have been able to handle my axe-kick." Yang grumbled, as Blake winced. She was thankful she had managed to avoid that one.

"While I applaud you for finding a loophole in my comments the other night Miss Belladonna. What I specifically meant was that you should avoid breaking _any_ rules." The Headmaster rebuked, ignoring Yang's comments. Blake once again felt her ears press down atop her head as Yang turned to give her a suspicious look. Oh, Blake knew the Headmaster wasn't as forgiving and kind as he looked… and she was sure he had said that as a punishment to her. Now Yang wouldn't rest until she knew what had happened last night.

Yang was more savvy than Jaune however, or more likely, she had just been in enough detentions to know when not to speak. Instead the two of them just sat, waiting. Yang looking bored and sullen, while Blake looked apologetic.

The Headmaster raised an eyebrow, but sighed once it was clear they weren't going to talk.

"Very well. Since the two of you only caused damage to one another, I will not assign a harsh punishment. But please do not try your luck for a third time. Dismissed."

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><p>Ozpin watched as the two young women quickly made their way from the room, before smiling and shaking his head. Glynda offered him a new mug of coffee as he rose to his feet and walked to the window to look outside.<p>

"Both last night, and today." She spoke after allowing him some time to drink. "You're usually more forgiving than you should be. But no punishment at all is strange, even for you."

"I had thought of making them scrub the dining hall." Ozpin admitted with a sigh. "But then I remembered what we will ask of them in the coming days, and it felt petty."

"What we ask is not unreasonable. They will be as safe as they can be." Glynda comforted, as best she could in any regard. "If all goes as planned, they won't need to face any danger we have not already prepared them for."

"That is the problem with plans." Ozpin whispered, as he watched teens running around the plaza outside. "They do not tend to hold, when it comes to it."

A hand rested on his shoulder, as the reflection of his trusted Deputy came into vision in the window before him. She didn't say anything however, and for that he was thankful. No empty platitudes or kind words could ease what was happening across Vale. The situation was far worse than they had ever expected, particularly if it had come to _this._

"For now, we will let them be children." He affirmed, before sighing. "Gather the students in two hours in the Main Hall. I will address them personally." The hand released his shoulder, as the woman stepped back.

"As you wish Ozpin."

The Headmaster of Beacon Academy continued watching his charges as the clicking of his assistant's heels sounded their way from his office, and the door closed behind her.

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><p>"I never thought I'd be so cliché as to drag another girl into a bathroom for a conference." Yang laughed as she pushed herself up so she was sat on the marble ledge, between two sinks. Leaning back onto the mirror with a small smile on her lips. Blake simply leant against a wall by a hand-dryer, a defiant expression set in place.<p>

"I think you owe me some answers kitty-kat." The blonde prodded. "If not because I'm your friend, then for dumping egg in my hair. First of all… why were you in the Headmaster's office last night?"

Blake looked away as she sighed. She did feel a little guilty for damaging Yang's hair, especially considering how important it was to the girl, but she _had_ been justified at the time. Despite that, Yang was correct that she owed her an explanation. Otherwise Yang would make her own assumptions, and that would be far worse.

"Alright." Blake sighed out. "First of all, we didn't go to the library." She watched Yang's face to see if she pulled any dirty expressions, but the blonde seemed content to simply listen, for which she was thankful. "I took your advice on helping him with his fighting. We were in the sparring domes."

"Well that explains the sweating, and I guess you were caught using them?" Blake nodded, to which Yang sighed. "And here I was hoping it would be something juicier… you kill all my fun, Blake."

"For a girl who's so interested in everyone else' love life, you sure don't do much of your own." Blake grumbled, as she fixed an evil eye on Yang. The comment was true though. For a girl who stylised herself as the life of the party… and there was no doubt, Yang _was_ one of the most desirable girls in Beacon. She showed incredibly little interest in guys. Or girls.

"Hmm." Yang hummed in agreement, as she kicked her legs back and forth below the marble. "I guess you're right. I don't really have time for any of that though."

"I would have expected that excuse from Weiss."

"And yet she's already taken a liking to that Neptune guy, heh." Yang laughed at the idea, though Blake was quick to notice she hadn't actually put the heiress through much teasing.

"Why do you not have time Yang? Don't tell me it's because no one meets your standard or some such…" Maybe it was none of her business, but now that she thought about it, it was something that had always intrigued her. Yang had her own motorcycle for crying out loud, and she had used it, what? Once or twice? And she always talked about going out to clubs, yet had not visited one since Beacon.

"It's nothing like that." The blonde waved off, shrugging lightly. "Just I'm here to become a huntress, nothing more."

The words were so strange coming from her that Blake couldn't help but dwell on them. The idea that `all play and no work` Yang… actually was so focused on becoming a Huntress was a little off.

"I never thought to ask, why did you decide to become a huntress anyway?" Blake asked instead, crossing her arms beneath her breasts.

"Why?" Yang echoed, tilting her head back with a smile. "If anyone else asked me that, I'd have told them it was for the thrill of it. Because there's nothing else I'd rather be doing. Can you imagine me working in accounts or something? It's the truth too, what else is there for me?" Blake grinned at the image, before her face became more sombre.

"And because I asked?"

"Rubes always wanted to be a huntress. It's what our mum was, what our dad was, and our uncle too. She grew up round it, and always saw mum as a hero." Yang began, not answering her original question, but Blake still refused to interrupt. "Summer was a hero to loads of people. And I loved her too, but when she went and died all I could do was curse the idea of hunters. It was being a huntress that took her away from us. She died probably being a hero to other people, but why not us?"

"Ruby didn't see it that way of course. Summer died saving people, and Ruby was just always so damn kind about it. I guess because she was so young, she didn't have the same feelings of abandonment. Especially since I'd already lost a mother before that."

Blake nodded to show she understood. She hadn't specifically asked at what age Ruby was when they had lost their mother, but judging by the story Yang had told her about when their uncle had rescued them… Ruby must have only been six or seven. It made sense that what she would remember of her mother would have been more muted than Yang. The loss would be felt much more keenly.

"So Ruby decided she was going to become a huntress, and I just had this image of her going out and not returning one day, and I lost it. Decided I'd be a huntress too."

"But you didn't want to be?" Blake queried. She'd known Yang was protective of Ruby, Hell everyone did. But she'd never expected it to be _this_ bad.

"I'm happy with where I am now." Yang quickly corrected with a grin. "That's just how I started out. I was popular at Signal too, more popular than I really cared for, but it did let me make sure Ruby wasn't bullied or anything. She made her own friends there too, things started to look up."

"And then she got accepted into Beacon, two years early." Blake finished knowingly, as Yang's face twisted in displeasure.

"Yeah. Don't get me wrong, I'm proud of her, and glad I could still look after her. But she's fifteen Blake, and she was separated from all her friends."

"She's talented." Blake defended. Understanding Yang's concerns, but knowing full well that Ruby was on _their_ level, and could look after herself.

"I don't doubt her skill." Yang argued back. "But she would have been even _more_ talented in two years."

"Is this all about keeping her safe? I know you're protective Yang, but seriously…" Blake tensed for a moment when Yang's eyes flashed red, before she seemed to draw her temper back in and force it down. Despite that, she was still surprised how quickly Yang had gotten angry.

"You don't understand. Our father broke down when he lost Summer. He stopped being a real father and became this… well. He wasn't the same. So who do you think had to comfort Ruby? Who do you think had to cook meals, and make sure she had baths and stuff?"

Blake closed her eyes and sighed in a simple show of understanding. So Yang had been forced to become the mother. It wasn't an unusual tale, she'd heard of orphans doing this before. But somehow she had expected that by still having their father, they would not have faced this.

"It's weird." Yang admitted uncomfortably. "It's weird being fourteen and having your twelve year old sister… who you go to school with. Come to you afterwards to cry about how one of your _own_ friends had bullied her. Weirder still the emotions it brings up. So I beat the bastard up, but he _was_ my friend you know? Not after that, of course. So what does that make me? A bad friend?"

"A good sister." Blake corrected easily.

"Or a violent mother?" Yang quipped back with a short laugh. "It's the past anyway, I'm over it. But that doesn't mean I don't keep seeing her as my daughter sometimes, it's weird. I see this fifteen year old girl who I know is at the age to be into guys and stuff. And I'm like `_she's too young to be into guys… I'm at that age, and I'm her mother.`_ But I'm not, and I remember she's almost the same age as me."

_Sounds messed up._ Is what Blake wanted to say, but she would not. She couldn't really empathise with Yang, not having experienced anything similar in her entire life. But intellectually she could understand where she was coming from. She supposed if you raised someone, you would feel like their mother in some way or another.

"When we got to Beacon I tried to force her to make her own friends, sounded good in theory. I thought maybe if she was on a different team she would grow up, and myself as well. Then as soon as initiation started, the panic got to me, and I spent the entire time looking for her. I was going to make her _my_ partner."

"I'm sorry." Blake apologised, referring to her interrupting Yang's search, and taking that chance away from her.

"I'm not." Yang quickly replied, winking at Blake. "This is the best of both worlds. We both get new friends, we both grow a little, and I can still look after her. She wouldn't have improved as a Huntress, or a person – if I made all her decisions for her."

"Is this why you're not interested in guys then? Because you think it will take your attention away from Ruby?"

"Not just that. It would be unfair to the guy as well, I'd drop him in an instant if Ruby was in trouble. We're just seventeen, the guys here are training to be Hunters too. The last thing they need is a single mother." Blake nodded in understanding, even if she didn't fully agree with Yang's motives. It wasn't her place to try and change her mind, and she wasn't sure if Yang should change her mind. If she honestly felt that any relationship she had would be damaged because she couldn't give it her all… then maybe it _was_ best not to try. It would just cause her stress and pain.

"Don't get me wrong though. If a really awesome guy came along, I might try it. I'm not giving up on romance forever. Just… not going out of my way to hunt it down either."

"And we're back to your hunting analogies for dating?" Blake laughed as the mood became a little lighter. Yang grinned back and used her hands to propel herself from the sinks.

"Damn straight. When I do find the right guy, he'd best be prepared to run." Yang walked slowly up to Blake, before placing her hands on the wall either side of her head, trapping her between Yang's arms, her breasts and the wall itself. Blake flinched.

"Now then. I've shared my sordid little secret. You've been acting up, and you were way too embarrassed last night to have just been _told off_. Now spill."

Blake squirmed uncomfortably, as she looked away. She should have expected Yang had seen through her little omission. And she'd been using her emotional conversation to lure Blake in… She didn't want to talk about what had happened, half from embarrassment, but mostly because she didn't want to ruin the fragile balance of their team. That status quo as it were.

"Maybe I need advice." Blake half-admitted as she let her eyes meet Yang's once more.

"You're my partner." Yang spoke, and said nothing more. Blake understood.

"We _did_ go training. I identified his problems and he fought better because of it. Everything was going perfectly, he even managed to surprise me and beat me." Blake recalled as she described the last few actions of the fight to Yang, making the blonde girl grin.

"That's great then. You're a good teacher it seems. What's the issue though?"

"At… at the end, he subdued me by dragging me in by the ribbon on Gambol Shroud. He then got my arms stuck in the ropes and pinned me against the wall. It was a good plan, he used his physical strength to get past my agility. The problem is…"

"Yeah?" Yang urged.

"I liked it… a little bit more than I should have, if you catch my meaning." She tried to phrase it as subtly as she could, while still making sure Yang got the meaning behind the word.

"You got hot and bothered?" Yang instead brusquely announced, causing Blake's eyes to narrow, before she sighed. Honestly, _hot and bothered_ was probably the most accurate term she could apply to what she had felt. "What the Hell's the problem with that?"

_What!?_ Blake stared at her in confusion. What did Yang mean by that? What was wrong with it? Everything. Obviously.

"Uh... maybe the fact that I don't really like Jaune when he acts like normal. Or how about that Pyrrha has been crushing on him since day one… Or your own sister, who you love like a daughter?" Yang sighed as she brought her arms down before turning away and walking back to the sinks, this time leaning her hips against the marble instead of sitting on it.

"Firstly. Let's talk Ruby." Yang began. "I want her to be happy, but love is a complicated thing. Even I don't really understand it. So I see three ways this could go. Jaune fancies her back and the two of them get together, it either works and they live happily ever after. Or it fails, and they feel disappointed. Or the third option – he chooses someone else."

"If I were to get all pro-active about it, I could probably force him to go on a few dates with Ruby, to push things along. But what if he does date her, but then decides he likes P-money more. Or you? Ruby's heart would be broken. My best choice is just letting the guy make his own decision. At least then if he does pick my sister, I'll know it's because he _does_ love her."

"But if he picks Pyrrha. Or even you, then that's fine too. Because it will save Ruby the pain of a failed relationship. She'll find someone else in time. So no. I don't see a problem in your liking him, even if the others like him too."

Blake shook her head in frustration. That wasn't the main concern. Sure that solved the issue on whether _Yang_ would be upset. But what about Ruby or Pyrrha themselves? They were her friends too, and this would be her interfering directly in their love life, for her own benefit.

"It won't work anyway." Blake argued. "I only got that way when he was acting differently to how he acts now. He's straight back to being embarrassed this morning, which I'll add - isn't doing much for me."

"You know when I teased you about liking his more dominating side, it was meant to be a joke, right?" Yang sighed. "I don't know much about all the crazy morals of love, or life. I know they say you need to accept people for how they are, but he's a teenager. He won't be the same grown up as he is now. No one is. Besides, if he does change it will be by his own choice – you're not exactly forcing him to become like this at knife point. Actually it kinda makes sense you might be interested in him this way, since you're putting all this effort into him. It would be weirder if you helped him become a more attractive guy, and then _weren't_ pleased with the results."

"But what if I don't want to?" Blake whispered after Yang's explanations. She didn't want to cause these rifts, or break their team up like this.

"Then don't!" Yang shouted. "God's Blake, listen to yourself. So you got hot and sweaty when a guy pins you against a wall after a good fight. Describe it in any more detail and even _I'll_ get excited. It's a natural reaction. It hardly means you need to go and molest him, nor that you have to give the guy your first-born child."

Blake blinked in response to the simple logic. Was it really that simple? Arousal _was_ nothing more than a physiological response to stimulus… it told her that she wanted what he was offering right then and there, but since when had they let their bodies dictate everything about their life? That was the domain of animals… and faunus were not mere animals.

"I guess I've been making more out of this than I need to." Blake admitted with a sigh, more to relax herself than out of frustration. Yang was right. Perfectly correct.

"Eh. You were caught off guard and embarrassed. Just promise me something Blake?" Blake nodded and leaned back against the wall, feeling more relaxed than she had in the last few hours. "Don't dismiss all of this out of hand, okay? I'm not saying you have to go out with the guy or anything. But just carry on like you have been. You and Jaune have become good friends, and if that down the line _does_ turn into something more, then great. But it would be cruel, to him as well as you, to kill that possibility now – just because it freaks you out."

"I'll try." Blake compromised. Yang was right that this could ruin their new friendship if she let it, and Blake would do her best not to let that happen. She _did_ enjoy chatting with Jaune now, and he was a good guy. She just hoped he didn't dwell too much on the matter, or try to push her on it.

"That's all I ask." Yang grinned back as she pulled Blake into a hug, making the smaller girl roll her eyes, but smile.

"Attention all Students of Beacon." The unmistakeable voice of Miss Goodwitch spoke out once more over the speakers around the campus, making Blake sigh, and Yang groan. "Years one and two students are to gather in the Main Hall in the next twenty minutes. I repeat…"

"Welp." Yang laughed as she span around, holding Blake's head under the crook of her arm in a crude headlock. Blake simply sighed at the manhandling. "Duty calls. Come on partner."

* * *

><p><strong>Eh… I could have included the briefing for their next mission in here, but I feel that would be too many skips for the chapter, and I wanted to keep things organised as best I could. So this chapter. Christ, another Blake and Yang centric one, this is turning into a blooming Bumblebee. Nah. <strong>

**Some of you may disagree with Yang's monologue in this chapter. I think she is a really interesting character, and it IS odd that she never goes after guys or girls. Despite enjoying looking. She also goes to that party alone, and instead of mingling – watches over the students from a balcony. Like some kind of protective mother hen looking over her chicks. So I had a few theories why, but could only use one in this story, and chose this one. If you don't like it, my apologies. My only other choice was some kind of "choose your own adventure" type chapter… and let's not force me to do that! Lol. **

**I also feel that Blake seemed a tad OOC in this chapter, but then again, the situation is so incredibly OOC (out of control) for her that I imagine her nerves as going completely haywire. Also I wanted to get across that she **_**is**_** genuinely worried about hurting Ruby and Pyrrha. Ruby, more than Pyrrha of course. It's more emotion than she normally has to deal with, and let's remember she is prone to **_**some**_** dramatic reactions – after all, she fled from her team last time, and tried to attack a wanted criminal singlehandedly. So yeah… Blake is smart, but she can make mistakes too. **

**P.s. Yes, Blake has decided she doesn't love him. Did you expect it to happen so quickly? She's spent ages telling herself she doesn't, so a burst of arousal isn't going to change her mind. She's still in the denial stage.**


End file.
